The INSPIRE Summer School 2025 offers an intensive and interactive 5-day programme on Cardiovascular Safety Pharmacology and Cardio-Oncology. Built as a multidisciplinary course, this training consists of theoretical lectures complemented by hands-on sessions in associated technologies. This course is a continuation of the EU-funded collaborative training network in safety pharmacology INSPIRE (www.inspire-safety-pharmacology.eu), which in the past years has built a training programme benefiting from the academic, industrial, and clinical perspectives by exploring the latest technological capabilities to address emerging cardiovascular and cardio-oncology safety concerns.
The programme starts with a refresher on cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology. Next, speakers from leading pharma companies will provide insight in the process of drug development and the importance of clinical safety. The regulatory landscape of drug development and safety evaluation will be elaborated, as well as a description of key methods implemented in Safety Pharmacology to identify adverse effects of drug candidates early on. A few case studies of failed drug candidates will be discussed as well. Further, clinical cases of drug-related cardiovascular complications presented by cardiologists will provide a wider perspective on the topic. More specifically, the discipline of cardio-oncology will be discussed in detail. With increasing survival rates of cancer patients, the long(er)-term effects of anticancer treatment (i.e. cardiac toxicity) are receiving more scrutiny. In this context, the programme will conclude with highlighting academic research to evaluate the detrimental effects of many anticancer drugs on endothelial cells. Endothelial cells are the inner lining of the vascular system and play a pivotal role in vascular physiology and pathophysiology. At the end of the programme, students will have gained a comprehensive view of the topic of cardiovascular (patho)physiology and how these mechanisms should be taken into account and screened for during drug development.
Programme summary
DAY 1 – Thusday 28 AUGUST
- MORNING (09:00 -12:30) Refresher on cardiovascular disease pathophysiology
- Speaker: Vincent Segers, University of Antwerp
- Learning outcome: Understand the physiology and pathophysiology of hypertension | Understand the pathophysiology of ischemic heart disease (including atherosclerosis) | Understand the patho-physiology of heart failure and cardiac remodeling.
- AFTERNOON (13:30 – 17:00) Lecture: Insight in the process of drug development and safety pharmacology (SP).
- Speaker: Jean-Pierre Valentin, UCB Biopharma SRL
- Learning outcome: Understand the process of drug development and the importance of clinical safety | Introduction to non-clinical safety testing | Principles and helicopter view on Safety Pharmacology and Toxicology.
DAY 2 – Friday 29 AUGUST
- MORNING (09:00 – 12:30) Regulatory landscape of drug development and safety evaluation and case studies.
- Speaker: Jean-Pierre Valentin, UCB Biopharma SRL - Industry perspective
- Learning outcome: Requirements for nonclinical studies and their relation to the conduct of human clinical trials | Regulatory requirements for cardiovascular evaluation of drug candidates | Advantages and limitations of the methods currently used for cardiovascular safety assessment.
- AFTERNOON (13:30 – 17:00) Endothelial cells (EC) in cardio-oncology
- Speaker: Stefan Chłopicki, Jagiellonian University in Kraków - Academic perspective
- Learning outcome: Introduction to the important role of EC in maintaining cardiovascular homeostasis | Overview of methods state-of-the-art to study endothelial phenotype in vivo and their application to understanding pathomechanisms of endothelial dysfunction in various cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular diseases | Detrimental effects of anti-cancer drugs on endothelial function | Towards endothelial profiling of anti-cancer drug.
DAY 3 – Monday 1 SEPTEMBER
- MORNING (09:00 – 12:30) PartA: strategies for evaluation of teratogenicitiy during drug R&D.
- Speaker: Steven Van Cruchten, University of Antwerp Learning outcome: Physiological signals analysis and interpretation | Displays , graphs and charts: how to choose the right ones | Data acquisition requirements depending on analysis objectives | Regulatory framework.
- PartB: Signal processing / data visualization. Speaker: Pieter-Jan Guns, University of Antwerp
- Learning outcome: Physiological signals analysis and interpretation | Displays , graphs and charts: how to choose the right ones | Data acquisition requirements depending on analysis objectives | Regulatory framework.
- AFTERNOON (13:30 – 17:00) Hands-on echocardiography / organ baths
- Organisers: Physiopharmacology Research Group, University of Antwerp
- Description: Follow the researchers of the laboratory during live experiments | Gain insights on methodologies to investigate cardiovascular function in vivo and ex vivo | Pracitcal insight in data handling and analysis | Introduction in good laboratory practices.
DAY 4 - 27 Tuesday 2 SEPTEMBER
- MORNING (09:00 – 12:30) Clinical cardiology and cardio-oncology (and case reports)
- Speaker: Constantijn Franssen, Antwerp University Hospital - Cardiologist perspective
- Learning outcome: Introduction to cardiology | Understand the main cardiovascular pathologies and methods used for diagnosis and treatment | Introduction to cardio-oncology | Understand challenges and best practices in cardio-oncology.
- AFTERNOON (13:30 – 17:00) hiPSC technology in drug R&D
- Speaker: Brigitta Rita Szabó, MSCA doctoral researcher, Maastricht University
- Learning outcome: Basic introduction to hiPSC, general principles of generation, differentiation, and applications in Safety Pharmacology | Advanced integrated hiPSC-based assays: validation and challenges | Large scale production and associated ethical aspects | Future perspectives of hiPSCs in drug development
DAY 5 - 28 AUGUST
- FULL-DAY WORKSHOP & CLOSING (09:00 – 15:00) Career development, strategic thinking, and proposal writing. Speaker: Pieter-Jan Guns, University of Antwerp
- Learning outcome: Tools to develop a career development plan | Understanding which skills and strategies are useful to become a successful researcher | Tips and tricks for writing a research proposal | How can we measure the quality of scientific output? | What are the ingredients of a good scientific publication? | Tips and tricks for writing your first publication
- An career in pharmaceutical industry – what are the opportunities. Speaker: Khuram Chaudhary, Bristol Myers Squibb
Target group
INSPIRE Summer School is addressed to master graduate students, PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and professionals in the field of Medicine, Pharmaceutical Sciences and other Life Sciences (including Bio-Medical Sciences and Bio-Engineering).
Campus
This summer school takes place at Stadscampus (Prinsstraat 13, 2000 Antwerp) of the University of Antwerp. This campus is located in the city centre.
Micro-credentials and study credits (ECTS)
Successful completion of the summer school by attending all the lectures and participation in the oral examination can be awarded with 3 CREDITS according the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).
To include the credits in the curriculum at the home institution, participants need an agreement with the responsible person at the home institution.
Students of the University of Antwerp who wish to include the ECTS credits earned during an Antwerp Summer or Winter University programme as part of their study programme must register via Mobility Online and SisA.
A certificate will be awarded at the end of the programme. All certificates of completion are issued as a micro-credential.
Learning outcomes
- Understanding drug development and the challenge of evaluating drug safety and adverse events (i.e. safety pharmacology and pharmacovigilance)
- Refresher of key concepts in cardiovascular regulation and pathologies.
- Getting insights in current state-of-the-art methodologies and emerging challenges in cardiovascular safety pharmaoclogy evaluation; and adressing these topics from the perspective of pharma companies, regulatory agencies and patients.
- Providing inspiration and tools for active career development (i.e. drafting a career development plan).
- Devloping skills for effective dissemination of scientific results towards different audiences.