Prof. Dr. Marc Ferrante is an associate professor at KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium) and a staff member of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University Hospitals Leuven since 2012. He is a lecturer for the students of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine, and a coach of the clinical fellows in training.
Marc Ferrante pursued his training in internal medicine and gastroenterology at the KU Leuven. He obtained his medical degree in 2002 and his Belgian board certification in gastroenterology in 2010. During his training, he performed internships in Tygerberg (Stellenbosch, South Africa), Chris Hani Baragwanath (Johannesburg, South Africa), and Onze-Lieve-Vrouwziekenhuis (Aalst, Belgium).
In 2007, he successfully defended his PhD, which was entitled “Assessing and predicting disease progression in IBD: a clinical and molecular approach”. In 2010, Marc Ferrante initiated his post-doctoral work at the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, the Netherlands, under the supervision of Hans Clevers. With the knowledge gained in this renowned center, Marc Ferrante started his own research group at the KU Leuven in close collaboration with Catherine Verfaillie from the Stem Cell Institute of Leuven and the IBD team. His group is currently focusing on the influence of microbiota on intestinal stem cell behavior and differentiation in patients with IBD.
Marc Ferrante published more than 240 papers in high-ranked gastroenterology journals (H index: 46). For his work, he has received numerous research awards including the van Genechten-Paternoster en Prof G Vantrappen Award, the Willy and Marcy De Vooght Foundation Award, as well as an ECCO and CREA Research Grant. He was awarded as Rising Star in Gastroenterology at the European Congress of Gastroenterology in 2014. He is currently the promotor of four PhD programs.
Marc Ferrante holds a basic-clinical research position at the Flemish Foundation for Scientific Research (FWO Vlaanderen). He is a member of the Scientific Committees of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) and the Belgian IBD Research and Development (BIRD) group. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis, reviewer for many gastroenterology journals, and central reader for several multi-centre clinical trials.