Prof. dr. Piet Stinissen

Piet Stinissen is a Full Professor of Immunology at Hasselt University. He holds a master’s degree and PhD in sciences (biochemistry) from the University of Antwerp. He is Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, Chairman of the Biomedical Research Institute (BIOMED) and head of the Immunology and Biochemistry laboratory at Hasselt University.

His group focuses on the mechanisms involved in autoimmunity, the identification of new biomarkers and the development of new immunotherapeutic strategies for multiple sclerosis. He is co-chair of the Multiple Sclerosis Network Limburg and chairman of a Belgian FWO Study group on multiple sclerosis. He is (co)-author of more than 100 peer reviewed publications and 5 patent applications. He received several scientific awards including Methusalem and Charcot grants and an Award from the Royal National Academy of Science.

His group started two spin-off companies and he serves as advisor to pharmaceutical and biotech companies. He is founding chairman of LifeTechLimburg and board member of NV Life Sciences Development Campus (BioVille), two organisations that promote and support regional biomedical life sciences and healthcare technology development.

He is also a board member of the Flemish Centre for Medical Innovation (CMI), member of the steering committee of Flanders’ Care, board member of the Euregional platform Biomedica, chair of the Limburg Clinical Research Program (a partnership with the hospitals ZOL and Jessa) and board member of the regional hospital cluster Hospilim.

• Broux B, Pannemans K, Zhang X, Markovic-Plese S, Broekmans T, Eijnde BO, Van Wijmeersch B, Somers V, Geusens P, van der Pol S, van Horssen J, Stinissen P, Hellings N. CX(3)CR1 drives cytotoxic CD4(+)CD28(-) T cells into the brain of multiple sclerosis patients. J Autoimmun. 2012 Feb;38(1):10-9.

• Venken K, Hellings N, Liblau R, Stinissen P. Disturbed regulatory T cell homeostasis in multiple sclerosis. Trends Mol Med. 2010 Feb;16(2):58-68.

• Broux B, Hellings N, Venken K, Rummens JL, Hensen K, Van Wijmeersch B, Stinissen P. Haplotype 4 of the multiple sclerosis-associated interleukin-7 receptor alpha gene influences the frequency of recent thymic emigrants. Genes Immun. 2010 Jun;11(4):326-33.

• Venken K, Hellings N, Broekmans T, Hensen K, Rummens JL, Stinissen P. Natural naive CD4+CD25+CD127low regulatory T cell (Treg) development and function are disturbed in multiple sclerosis patients: recovery of memory Treg homeostasis during disease progression. J Immunol. 2008 May 1;180(9):6411-20.

• Somers V, Govarts C, Somers K, Hupperts R, Medaer R, Stinissen P. Autoantibody profiling in multiple sclerosis reveals novel antigenic candidates. J Immunol.
  2008 Mar 15;180(6):3957-63.
  
  

Full list of publications