Dr. Van der Ploeg is Chief Scientific Officer since October 2011. He has more than 25 years of drug development experience focused on obesity, metabolic disorders, oncology, and neurodegenerative diseases. Before joining Rhythm, he was Senior Vice President of Integrative Medicine and Translational Science at Abraxis Bioscience and Head of R&D at Abraxis Health; both companies were acquired by Celgene Corporation. Prior to that, he held R&D leadership roles at MRL directing drug development programs in metabolism, oncology, and neurodegenerative diseases as Vice President, Basic Research and Site Head, MRL Boston; Site Head, MRL San Diego; and Head, Obesity Research for Merck Rahway and Banyu, Japan. Previously, Dr. Van der Ploeg was an associate professor in the Department of Genetics and Development at Columbia University. He has received numerous awards and grants for his research and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed research papers. Dr. Van der Ploeg is a named inventor on more than 50 patents and patent applications. He received an M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Amsterdam and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry/Enzymology/Genetics from the University of Amsterdam/Netherlands Cancer Institute.