Group Leader Target Identification
Evotec SE, Germany
With more than 15 years of experience in early drug discovery, Dr. Honarnejad is group leader for target identification and validation at Evotec in Hamburg, Germany. His expertise covers various aspects of drug discovery, including the target ID and validation, development of disease-relevant assays, high-throughput screening, H2L, LO, and pharmacological profiling across therapeutic areas. Leading a dynamic team at Evotec, he specializes in drug target identification using CRISPR screening technology. Previously, from 2017 to 2021, Dr. Honarnejad served as the group leader for high-throughput drug and target discovery at the Fraunhofer ITEM in Regensburg, Germany, overseeing high-throughput compound screens. From 2013 to 2017, he led a project team at the Neuroallianz public-private partnership consortium, focusing on identifying novel drug targets for neurodegenerative diseases through high-throughput RNAi screening. Dr. Honarnejad earned his PhD in Neuroscience from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where his research between 2007 and 2013, focusing on identifying drug candidates for Alzheimer's disease by HTS, received the SLAS Tony B. award.
As a dedicated SLAS member for over a decade, Dr. Honarnejad became a distinguished SLAS fellow in 2022. He co-chaired the SLAS Knowledge Content and Delivery Council (KCDC) from 2019 to 2021 and currently serves as a judge panel member for the SLAS New Product Award (NPA). Notably, he chaired the Precision Medicine Technologies session in the Discovery Track at SLAS Europe 2021.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/honarnejad/