Treatment of chronic inflammatory disease has advanced from symptom management to disease control, yet many patients still face incomplete responses, relapse, and treatment dependence. Subclinical inflammation and tissue injury often persist—driving cumulative damage and impacting patients’ quality of life.
J&J invites you to an event focused on the next paradigm shift: moving beyond inflammation control to enable “deep healing,” where tissue structure, barrier integrity, and homeostatic set points are restored to support durable, meaningful outcomes for patients.
While controlling inflammation aids healing, deeper recovery requires more than just anti-inflammatory approaches. Complementary pathways with a direct role in repair are needed to promote sustained and durable remission. Several emerging areas of biology focused on restoration of epithelial barriers and/or modulation of peripheral neuro-immune signaling pathways, are emerging as novel opportunities.
Join us in Brussels or virtually to discuss promising innovations in this field and how we might collaborate across the European life sciences ecosystem to bring these innovations to patients.
The program is tailored to academic innovators and startups in autoimmune disease who are interested in collaborative opportunities related to repair in chronic inflammatory conditions including gut, skin, lung and rheumatic conditions. We also welcome VCs, TTOs, and incubators with a portfolio of innovators or startups.
- Navin Rao, VP Global Head of Discovery, Immunology, Johnson & Johnson
Esther Hoste, Assistant professor, Inflammation Research Center, VIB-UGent
- Ward Capoen, Partner, V-Bio Ventures
Reginald Brys, Entrepreneur in Residence, VIB
Kristen Johnson, Distinguished Scientist Discovery, Immunology, Johnson & Johnson (moderator)
Navin is responsible for the Discovery portfolio within the Immunology Therapeutic Area, partnering closely with external innovation colleagues to deliver on the Immunology TA strategy to build an industry-leading portfolio of medicines. He is accountable for the Discovery strategy and leads teams across multiple J&J R&D sites to deliver development candidates. He works closely with colleagues in Oncology, Neurosciences and Data Sciences on overlapping disease pathways. Navin leads a Discovery research team that drives Immunology portfolio activities in support of the Rheumatology DAS and the Immunology portfolio. He also has responsibilities for multiple scientific and drug discovery collaborations involving academic, industry and cross-pharma partners.
Navin completed his doctoral training in Immunology at Harvard University and did his undergraduate studies at the University of Puget Sound in evolutionary biology and classical history. He has co-authored over 60 scientific publications and is an inventor on numerous patents.
Ward has a PhD in molecular biology research and worked at VIB/UGent, the John Innes Centre and Harvard Medical School. His expertise spans both plant and animal models, and ranges from fundamental to translational research. Before joining V-Bio Ventures, Ward worked as a senior analyst at Candriam Investors Group (formerly Dexia Asset Management), where he was responsible for investment analysis of early-stage listed biotech companies.
Ward holds a PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Gent, Belgium. He also has an MBA from Vlerick Business School, Leuven, Belgium.
Kristy is a Distinguished Scientist at J&J, where she leads the Emerging Science Immunology team across the United States and Belgium. She has extensive drug discovery experience spanning target identification through Phase 2 clinical development, with deep expertise in inflammation and rare disease. Across roles in both pharma and biotech, she has led strategic initiatives, built strong partnerships, and advanced differentiated science with the goal of delivering meaningful impact for patients.
Esther Hoste is Assistant Professor at the Department of Biomedical Molecular Biology at Ghent University. She performed her PhD studies on the role of caspase-14 in skin cornification and received postdoctoral training at Cambridge University and King’s College London to study how skin inflammation impacts wound repair and tumour formation. She set up her independent research team, located at the VIB-Ghent University Inflammation Research Center, to study the cellular and molecular crosstalk between keratinocytes and their microenvironment in repair, inflammation and neoplastic transformation using innovative mouse transgenesis and systems level transcriptomics approaches in clinical specimens. By studying the mechanisms of wound repair and early tumorigenesis, Esther’s team aims to identify novel signaling nodes that can be targeted therapeutically to improve clinical wound care and prevent non-melanoma skin cancer.
In recognition of her contributions to dermatology research, Esther Hoste received the LEO Foundation Award EMEA in 2022. Esther’s research is funded by FWO, Foundation against Cancer, LEO Foundation and VLAIO grants.
Since December 2025, Reginald had been Entrepreneur-in-Residence at VIB, the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology, where he is supporting the launch of Allosteris, a biotechnology company developing a novel class of therapeutics empowered by allosteric modulation for the treatment of immune-inflammatory indications.
Reginald joined VIB from Agomab Therapeutics, where he served as Senior Vice President Research. In this role, he was responsible for building the company’s fibrosis-focused research portfolio and overseeing translational activities that supported the advancement of Agomab’s clinical-stage programs.
Prior to Agomab, Reginald spent more than two decades at Galapagos NV, joining the company in 2000 and holding several leadership positions within its research organization. He led the company’s research activities for over ten years as Vice President Research, driving the development of deep portfolios focused on immune-inflammatory, fibrotic and renal diseases. Under his leadership, more than 30 drug candidates were discovered and advanced from research into clinical development.
Earlier in his career, Reginald held research positions at Janssen, part of Johnson & Johnson.
Reginald holds a PhD from KU Leuven.
Jennifer is Vice President of Immunology External Innovation at Johnson & Johnson, where she leads global search, evaluation and partnering strategies for early-stage opportunities to build a differentiated external portfolio. She brings deep scientific and business development expertise, with a focus on identifying transformative opportunities and shaping collaborations that accelerate innovation for patients with immune-mediated diseases worldwide.
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