Dieter graduated as a pharmacist from Ghent University (UGent) in 1994 and obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences five years later. With the BAEF (Belgian American Educational Foundation) funding he received, he pursued postdoctoral research in the United States at the University of California, San Diego.
In 2001, Dieter became a professor and head of the Laboratory for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, teaching courses such as pharmaceutical biotechnology and immunology.
During his PhD, he established an accredited DNA laboratory at UGent, which has been part of the Eurofins group since 2016, specifically Eurofins Forensics Belgium. He continues to be involved there as a DNA expert.
For nearly 20 years, Dieter has been a member of the Scientific Advice Working Party (SAWP) of the EMA, the European Medicines Agency, and has served for seven years as chairman of the Commission for Human Medicinal Products at the FAGG, the Belgian Medicines Agency.
Since October 2023, he has been serving as chair of the IOF Council, the Industrial Research Fund at UGent.
Currently, the Laboratory for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology employs around 20 staff members, including postdocs, doctoral students, lab technicians, and administrative personnel. The research group primarily focuses on applying proteomics and genomics to pharmacogenomics, stem cell development, prenatal genetic diagnostics, (auto)immunity, and forensic applications. Dieter has authored over 400 scientific publications to date.
Domains of expertise
- Proteomics
- Genomics
- Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
- Immunology
- Forensics
Selected projects & research platforms
- https://nxtgnt.ugent.be/
- NXTGNT was founded in 2008 to create a rich and unique substrate for groundbreaking research, development and valorization at Ghent University. The main goal of NXTGNT is the establishment of a reference center and core facilty for next generation sequencing (NGS), (epi-)genome and transcriptome analysis at Ghent University. NXTGNT established a unique service platform by the integration of a state-of-the-art NGS library preparation facility with several sequencing platforms and a strong expertise in -omics data-analysis (bioinformatics)
- ProGenTomics offers a wide range of mass spectrometry based proteomics services for both the academic community and industry. We aim to tailor our services and the experimental design to the needs of the project thus ensuring solid data and results. This includes sample preparation, method development, sample acquisition, data-analysis and detailed reporting.
- https://www.ugent.be/fw/pharmaceutics/pharmbiotech/en
Selected publications
- Acoustic ejection mass spectrometry empowers ultra-fast protein biomarker quantification. Van Puyvelde B, Hunter CL, Zhgamadze M, Savant S, Wang YO, Hoedt E, Raedschelders K, Pope M, Huynh CA, Ramanujan VK, Tourtellotte W, Razavi M, Anderson NL, Martens G, Deforce D, Fu Q, Dhaenens M, Van Eyk JE.Nat Commun. 2024 Jun 15;15(1):5114. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-48563-z.PMID: 38879593
- Integrated multi-omics reveal polycomb repressive complex 2 restricts human trophoblast induction. Zijlmans DW, Talon I, Verhelst S, Bendall A, Van Nerum K, Javali A, Malcolm AA, van Knippenberg SSFA, Biggins L, To SK, Janiszewski A, Admiraal D, Knops R, Corthout N, Balaton BP, Georgolopoulos G, Panda A, Bhanu NV, Collier AJ, Fabian C, Allsop RN, Chappell J, Pham TXA, Oberhuemer M, Ertekin C, Vanheer L, Athanasouli P, Lluis F, Deforce D, Jansen JH, Garcia BA, Vermeulen M, Rivron N, Dhaenens M, Marks H, Rugg-Gunn PJ, Pasque V.Nat Cell Biol. 2022 Jun;24(6):858-871. doi: 10.1038/s41556-022-00932-w. Epub 2022 Jun 13.PMID: 35697783
- Integrative Proteomic Profiling Reveals PRC2-Dependent Epigenetic Crosstalk Maintains Ground-State Pluripotency. van Mierlo G, Dirks RAM, De Clerck L, Brinkman AB, Huth M, Kloet SL, Saksouk N, Kroeze LI, Willems S, Farlik M, Bock C, Jansen JH, Deforce D, Vermeulen M, Déjardin J, Dhaenens M, Marks H.Cell Stem Cell. 2019 Jan 3;24(1):123-137.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2018.10.017. Epub 2018 Nov 21.PMID: 30472157
Work details
- Dieter.Deforce@ugent.be
- Ottergemsesteenweg 460, 9000 Gent, Belgium
- www.linkedin.com/in/dieterdeforce
- https://research.ugent.be/web/person/dieter-deforce-0/nl
- ORCID number https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0635-661X