Laboratory of General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy

Ilia Goemaere

Ilia

 

 

 

 

 

Contact

Ilia Goemaere
Laboratory for General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy
Ghent University
Ottergemsesteenweg 460
9000 Ghent
Belgium
Tel: 0032 9 264 8047 (secretary)
Tel: 0032 9 264 8365 (direct)
E-mail:

 

Biography

In 2020 I graduated with a MSc in Chemical Engineering Technology (UGent), with the completion of its linking program in 2019. The master’s dissertation I wrote was titled “Effect of isopropanol addition to N2, Ar and air DBD plasmas on the physicochemical surface modification of polyethylene films” (Department of Applied Physics – UGent). My MSc was preceded by a PBA in Biomedical Laboratory Technology (HoGent), which I concluded in 2018 with a thesis on the role of the BCESM genomic region on the persistence of Burkholderia contaminans (FFW – UGent) and an internship at the Evolutionary Systems Biology group (VIB). During my semester-long internship, I investigated dominance/biases in the expression levels of homoeologs in Brassica napus and the dating of the divergence time between Brassica napus’ paralogs.

Research Interests

NP sensitized photoporation, phagocytic cells, genetic engineering, cancer therapy, cell homeostasis

Summary research subject

The ever increasing interest in the use of genetic engineering to develop new therapies necessitates the optimization of transfection methods that are efficient, cause low cell mortality, give rise to biocompatible transfected cells and do not alter their therapeutic potential.
In this light, my PhD will focus on the application of photoporation in the generation of genetic engineered phagocytic immune cells. Whether or not photoporation affects (the phagocytic) cell homeostasis is of specific interest. Furthermore, a comparison between obtainable efficiencies with photoporation using NP-incorporated nanofibers and polydopa NPs will also be investigated, with the goal of finding an optimized and (more) biocompatible photoporation technique. In the end, I hope to explore the therapeutic possibilities of these engineered phagocytic cells.