Mario van der Stelt is a professor of Molecular Physiology at Leiden University. He crosses boundaries between chemistry and biology in his quest to bring new solutions for human disease. His seminal discovery of inhibitors of endogenous endocannabinoid biosynthesis and metabolism profoundly changed our thinking of how our neural network responds to stimuli like chronic pain, neuroinflammation and anxiety. Mario has developed chemical proteomic methodologies to map in one experiment all enzymes that modulate endocannabinoid or kinase signaling and showed that drug discovery processes can be streamlined and mishaps in clinical trials prevented by implementation of these. Building on these three pillars of understanding molecular malfunctioning in disease, of designing drug candidates to correct this and of assessing and balancing on-target and off-target activities, Mario now works on the discovery of new therapeutic strategies for neurological disorders, cancer and infectious diseases. He is co-founder of two start-up companies Omivera and Myriagon.