Invited Speakers

Stefaan De Smedt

Director Lab. General Biochmistry and Physical Pharmacy

Ghent Researh Group on Nanomedicines

Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ghent University

Ottergemsesteenweg 460, 9000 Ghent

Belgium

Group Website: www.drugdelivery.be 

Professor De Smedt graduated from Ghent University (Belgium) in 1995 and joined the pharmaceutical development group of Janssen Research Foundation. In 1999 he became Professor in Physical Pharmacy and Biopharmacy at Ghent University where he initiated research on advanced delivery of biologics/nanomedicines and founded the Ghent Research Group on Nanomedicines. The research focus in his lab is on the delivery of bio-therapeutics, nucleic acids and proteins, for future therapies of lung and ocular diseases and cancer (through mRNA vaccination and cell therapies). He has published over 450 peer-reviewed papers (h-index 88) and received multiple prestigious scholarships and awards. He is included in the Clarivate Analytics list of Highly Cited Researchers. Since 2004 he serves as the European  Editor of the Journal of Controlled Release. Since 2023 he leads the JCR as Editor-in-Chief. Prof. De Smedt is co-founder of Memobead Technologies (Belgium) and Trince (Belgium).

Professor De Smedt served as dean of his faculty between 2010 and 2014. From 2014 till 2022 he has been a member of the Board of Directors of respectively Ghent University and the Academic Hospital of UGent. He has been a Guest Professor at various universities in Belgium and China. He is a Distinguished Visiting Scientist of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has been elected as member of the Flemish Royal Academy of Medicine, the European Academy of Sciences and the Académie Nationale de Pharmacie de France.

Representative Publications

[1] Broadening the Message: A Nanovaccine Co-Loaded with Messenger RNA and α-GalCer Induce Antitumor Immunity through Conventional and Natural Killer T Cells

ACS Nano 2019

[2] The dawn of mRNA vaccines: the COVID-19 case.            

Journal of Controlled Release 2021

[3] Photothermal nanofibers enable safe engineering of therapeutic cells. R. Xiong et al., S.C. De Smedt and K. Braeckmans.

Nature Nanotechnology 2021

[4] Laser-induced nanobubbles safely ablate vitreous opacities in vivo.

Nature Nanotechnology 2022

[5] Transport by circulating myeloid cells drives liposomal accumulation in inflamed synovium.

Nature Nanotechnology 2023