Severine Vermeire is Full Professor of Medicine at the KU Leuven and Consultant Gastroenterologist at the University Hospital Leuven, Belgium. Since 2020, she is the Research Director of the Biomedical Sciences Group at KU Leuven. Between 2015 and 2020 she was the Chair of the Department of Chronic Diseases and Metabolism (CHROMETA) and from 2017 until 2022 she served in the Board of Directors of the University Hospital Leuven. Since 2017 she is a member of the Flemish Committee for Scientific Integrity (VCWI).
Severine Vermeire obtained her MD from KU Leuven in 1995 and her PhD at the same university in 2001. She further trained at the Universidad Nacional de Asuncion, Paraguay (1993), at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in Oxford, UK (1997-1998), and at the Montreal General Hospital McGill University, Canada (2000–2001).
Severine Vermeire’s contributions span both clinical and translational research with a focus on the role of the microbiome and genetic susceptibility in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). She is actively involved as principle investigator in multiple clinical trials with new therapeutic compounds and has been lead international investigator on several of these programmes. Her team pioneered in the field of therapeutic drug monitoring and predictive biomarkers of response in IBD. She is a highly-cited researcher with more than 800 peer-reviewed articles.
Severine Vermeire was associate editor of the scientific journal GUT (2004-2009) and of the Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis (2014-2017). She served as president of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (2014-2016) and of the Belgian IBD Research & Development Group (2011-2013). In 2017 she was elected member of the German Leopoldina Academy of Science and in 2022 of the Academia Europaea.
She was awarded an Advanced European Research Council (ERC) Grant in 2016 and currently leads the Horizon Europe-funded FIBROTARGET project (No 101080523) as Coordinator (2023-2028).
Severine Vermeire has mentored many scientists who now hold prominent academic positions and clinical positions worldwide.