Désiré Collen

Désiré José Louis, Baron Collen (Sint-Truiden, 21 June 1943) is a Belgian emeritus professor of KU Leuven Faculty of Medicine, physician, chemist and biotech-entrepreneur. He made a variety of discoveries in the field of thrombosis, hemostasis and vascular biology. He gained international prominence in the 1980s and 1990s for the discovery of the potential of t-PA (tissue plasminogen activator) as a life-saving drug for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or heart attack, and cerebrovascular incidents (CVA) or stroke. Collen demonstrated that the enzyme t-PA, due to its high affinity for fibrin, dissolves blood clots in a patient's body, with less disruption of  the overall blood clotting system than the previously available streptokinase. As a result, side effects such as heavy bleeding are markedly reduced. Through collaboration with the American company Genentech Inc., rt-PA (recombinant t-PA) was in the early eighties developed into one of the first genetically cloned drugs. Désiré Collen played a major role in the development of t-PA from a laboratory concept to a widely used life-saving drug. He has been rewarded with honorary degrees and awards for his work, and in 2013 he was awarded hereditary nobility with the personal title of baron by the then Belgian King Albert II.

Thanks to rt-PA, since it came on the market in 1987  as alteplase/ Activase®, hundreds of thousands of lives were saved. At the onset of the 21^st century angioplasty and stenting were developed as alternatives or complements to the administration of t-PA as treatment for heart attacks and strokes. Presently rt-PA is however still used worldwide, mainly for cerebral infarction, and it is recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the 'essential medicines'. 

Until his retirement in 2008, Collen was affiliated with the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven). He was the founder of the non-profit organization "D. Collen Research Foundation ", presently "Life Sciences Research Partners, LSRP", and of the private foundation "Désiré Collen Stichting, DCS" presently recognized as a foundation of public utility (SON). He also founded the companies "Thromb-X NV",  "ThromboGenics NV" (now “Oxurion NV“) and the investment fund "Fundplus NV”. In 2020 he founded the charity “Foundation for Education to improve Family Planning, FEFP”, registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales.

Désiré Collen was one of the biotech pioneers in Europe and one of the early ones in Belgium to combine academic research with entrepreneurship. He invested most of the proceeds of his work in scientific research, conferences, chairs, scholarships, university infrastructure, and philanthropy via LSRP, DCS and the “Collen Charitable Trust, CCT “.