Geert van Loo

Geert van Loo is a Professor at Ghent University and VIB Group Leader at the VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research. His research focuses on understanding how inflammation drives autoimmune and chronic diseases, particularly studying NF-κB signaling pathways, ER stress, and autophagy in disease models like inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis. He employs transgenic mice and CRISPR/Cas technology for in vivo studies. Key achievements include elucidating mechanisms of colibactin-driven colon cancer and the role of IL-33 in asthma pathogenesis.

Education: PhD in Biomedical Sciences from Ghent University (2002), postdoctoral training at EMBL (2002-2005). His lab has pioneered studies on inflammatory signaling pathways and their roles in cancer, autoimmunity, and neuroinflammation. Collaborations include work with VIB researchers and international teams on projects funded by FWO grants and Clarivate awards.

Research emphasizes translational medicine, with recent work published in Nature, Trends in Immunology, and Journal of Experimental Medicine. His lab includes 9 PhD students and postdocs, focusing on topics like gut-immune axis interactions and novel therapeutic targets for inflammatory disorders.