Biography

Holger Stark is pharmacist by education and made his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at the Free University of Berlin, Germany, in 1991 on newly designed prodrugs (BF2.94). Then, he worked on neurotransmitter ligands, mainly at dopamine and histamine receptor subtypes for the central nervous system. In 2000 he became full professor at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany and went in 2013 to the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany where he has his actual position. He is founded some start-up companies on cancer therapeutics (Warburg Glycomed, PSites Pharma) and has received several prices for his successful research as well as for teaching, e.g., honorary doctorate from the University of Nis, Serbia, in 2017. On more than 380 book contributions, original papers, reviews and patents he has focused on neurotransmitter as well as on lipid signaling research. He is co-inventor of pitolisant (Wakix®, Ozawade®), the first histamine H3 receptor antagonist with market approval, and has prepared several back-up candidates in different leads for various targets. From 2004 to 2019 Holger Stark has been editor-in-chief of the Archiv der Pharmazie – Chemistry in Life Sciences, one of the oldest journals on Medicinal Chemistry.