Lab Members
Prof. dr. Jolien Van Cleemput (principal investigator)
Prof. Jolien Van Cleemput leads the ADVANCE One Health team within the Laboratory of Virology at Ghent University. She is a veterinarian by training with a passion for virology.
Jolien Van Cleemput earned her Ph.D. in Veterinary Sciences in 2018, focusing on the pathogenesis of equine herpesviruses. She continued her research as a postdoctoral fellow and teaching assistant in the lab of Prof. Enquist at Princeton University (United States), where she investigated the molecular mechanisms of pseudorabies virus latency by using a novel gene-editing tool called CRISPR-Cas9. Bridging herpesvirus latency with gene editing brought her to HIV latency and the idea to implement CRISPR-Cas9 in a cure for HIV. She therefore joined the HIV Cure Research Center at Ghent University, where she established and led a research team dedicated to developing CRISPR-Cas9 nanomaterials for HIV cure strategies including lipid nanoparticles, virus-like particles, and viral vectors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she also coordinated the Benelux postmortem research line on SARS-CoV-2.
Scientific staff
Rianne graduated from Ghent University in 2023 with an M.Sc. in Biochemistry and Biotechnology. She started her Ph.D. in October 2023 at the HIV Cure Research Center under the guidance of Prof. Jolien Van Cleemput and Prof. Linos Vandekerckhove, and later transferred to the Laboratory of Virology.
Her research focuses on creating a herpesviral vector with the aim to cure human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections using the CRISPR-Cas9 system. Simultaneously, she is developing new and effective cure strategies against human herpesvirus type 7 (HHV-7). Her Ph.D. is supported by Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek.
In 2025, she took part in the 12th International Conference on HHV-6 and HHV-7, where she obtained the award for Outstanding Abstract.
Emily Brugger Galetic earned her B.Sc. in Bioveterinary Sciences from the University of Lincoln (United Kingdom) in 2022. She went on to complete a M.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Leuven (Belgium) in 2024. In January 2025, Emily began her Ph.D. at the Laboratory of Virology under the supervision of Prof. Jolien Van Cleemput. Soon after, she obtained her FWO-SB Ph.D. fellowship to develop the NanoClaws, a cure for feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV).
Her PhD work centers on the development of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) and virus-like particles (VLPs) as therapeutic tools for CRISPR-Cas9 delivery to cure FIV, a chronic, life-long infection in cats for which current treatments are primarily palliative.
The major obstacle to transform CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing therapy to a cure against FIV and other retroviruses is the low efficacy of CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoprotein (RNP) delivery to viral target cells by classical approaches.
Emily’s research aims to design innovative delivery systems capable of achieving a functional or sterilising cure for FIV, with potential implications for related viral therapies in veterinary contexts.
After graduating as a M.Sc. in Drug Development in 2022, Maaike joined the HIV Cure Research Center in Ghent as a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Prof. Jolien Van Cleemput, Prof. Linos Vandekerckhove and Prof. Bruno De Geest. She obtained an FWO-SB fellowship for her project on a CRISPR-Cas9-based HIV cure.
Her research involves the development of CD4-targeted lipid nanoparticles to deliver CRISPR-Cas9 to HIV-infected cells.
Alexandre Merchiers obtained his M.Sc. in Veterinary Medicine from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University in 2019. He immediately pursued a 1-year equine rotating internship at the department of large animal surgery of the same faculty. In 2020, he started working as an equine practitioner in a mixed general practice located in western Flanders (Belgium) for the 2 following years. In late 2022, he rejoined the department of large animal surgery as a full time assistant and PhD candidate under de supervision of Dr. Maarten Haspeslagh, Prof. Ann Martens and Prof. Jolien Van Cleemput. There he combines equine clinical work with scientific research in the field of equine sarcoids.
His main research explores the potential of CRISPR-Cas9 technology for eliminating papillomavirus-related oncogenes. The delivery of the CRISPR-Cas9 complex inside the tumor cell can be challenging. Therefore, virus-like particles are explored for their therapeutic potential.
His PhD research also focuses on exploring the sarcoid microenvironment and identifying novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of equine sarcoids.