Kristian Strømgaard obtained an MSc degree in Chemical Research from University College London, and continued as a Ph.D. student in medicinal chemistry, part-time at the Danish pharmaceutical company H. Lundbeck. He did a postdoc at Columbia University (New York), and shortly after, he was appointed H. Lundbeck Professor at the age of 36 to establish research in Chemical Biology. He won the ‘Teacher of the Year’ award from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science (Univ. Cph.) in 2009. In 2012, he co-founded Avilex Pharma, where he developed inhibitors of PSD-95 (DLG4) as a novel treatment for stroke, and successfully brought the lead compound AVLX-144 through Phase 1 clinical trials. In 2014, he was appointed Director of the Center for Biopharmaceuticals, where he headed a research center on peptide and protein engineering. Recently, he was a visiting professor at Harvard Medical School (Boston) to explore medical research and innovation. In 2021 he was awarded the University of Copenhagen Innovation Award and appointed Novo Nordisk Foundation Distinguished Innovator, and has taken out >15 patents, which have led to establishing of 3 biotech companies. Dr. Strømgaard has particular experience with studies of PSD-95, where he since 2006 have worked on developing ligands that perturb PSD-95, and engaged in molecular levels studies of the structure and function of PSD-95 and interacting proteins.