Koen Vercauteren

Koen Vercauteren is a Professor and Head of the Clinical Virology Unit at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp, Belgium. He leads the ITM Clinical Reference Lab, overseeing a team including 2 PhD students, 1 postdoctoral researcher, and 2 laboratory technicians. His research focuses on infectious disease laboratory medicine, particularly diagnostic technologies and molecular techniques for tropical pathogens. He has authored/co-authored 33 peer-reviewed papers, with 1147 citations, and holds a PhD in viral hepatitis research from Ghent University (2014).

Education:

• PhD in Pre-clinical Viral Hepatitis Research (Ghent University, 2014)
• MSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Ghent University, 2010)
• Clinical specialty training in Laboratory Medicine (Ghent University Hospital, 2016–2019)

Research Interests:

• Designing T-cell receptor sequencing (TCRseq)-based diagnostics
• Molecular techniques for broad detection of tropical viral pathogens (e.g., metagenomic sequencing)
• Evaluating Point-of-Care testing methods in low-resource settings

Recent Projects:

• Development of diagnostic assays for Ebola/Lassa viruses (RT-RPA)
• Mpox outbreak investigations in Cameroon and DRC
• Microfluidic diagnostic patches for pandemic control (EU-funded projects)

Grants/Awards: Recipient of BAEF postdoctoral fellowship (Rockefeller University, 2014–2016).

Labs/Teams: Leads the Clinical Virology Unit at ITM, collaborating on global health projects in Africa and Europe.