Dirk Elewaut

1. Mechanisms of inflammation occurring in musculoskeletal diseases such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and sarcopenia.
2. Gut microbiome investigations in rodents and humans.
3. Proof-of-concept clinical studies.

Prof. Dr. Elewaut is a full professor of Rheumatology and Immunology and chair of the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology at Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium, a European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) and Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) centre of excellence. He received his medical degree at Ghent University in 1991 and his PhD in 1997 at the same institution. Following his postdoctoral research at the University of California San Diego and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, CA, USA, he joined the faculty of the Department of Rheumatology at Ghent University Hospital in 2001.

He has published more than 300 scientific publications and is heading a team of 30 researchers at the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Inflammation within this department. The team joined the VIB Inflammation Research Centre in 2015, where Prof. Dr. Elewaut has been appointed as Principal Investigator. His research interests are centered around translational aspects of immune regulation to combat inflammatory diseases, with a special focus on the links between gut and immune system.

In 2020 Prof. Dr. Elewaut received the prestigious Carol Nachman Prize for Rheumatology of the City of Wiesbaden, Germany. This award is considered as the world’s highest honor awarded to a rheumatologist.