Prof. Dr. Pharm. Joery De Kock

Joery De Kock graduated in 2006 as Pharmacist from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences in May 2012 under the mentorship of Prof. Vera Rogiers. During his PhD, he managed for the first time to differentiate so-called human skin-derived precursor cells (hSKP) into hepatic cells. These hSKP-derived hepatic cells (hSKP-HPC) have provided a solid basis for multiple successful follow-up PhD projects over the last years. He is since 2017 a full-time Tenure Track professor affiliated to the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy at the research group of In Vitro Toxicology and Dermato-Cosmetology (IVTD) and was previously a postdoctoral research fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) from 2012 until 2017. From 2016 to 2018, he was a visiting researcher at the Institute of Biotechnology of the RWTH Aachen University in Germany. During this period he acquired expertise in state-of-the-art directed protein evolution technology. His ongoing research uniquely combines gene and stem cell therapy with directed protein evolution technology in order to develop next generation medicines to cure inborn errors of liver metabolism