Dieter Deforce

Dieter Deforce received his MSc Degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1994 from the University of Ghent, Belgium.

In 1999 he received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the same university. In 1999 he was awarded a BAEF (Belgian American Educational Foundation) fellowship for his post‐doctoral research in the University of California, San Diego, USA. He performed several additional research/teaching stays in the USA. In 2000 he was appointed a FWO (Fund for Scientific Research, Flanders) postdoctoral research fellowship. 

Dieter Deforce became a professor at the University of Ghent in 2001; he was appointed as head of the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

From 2001 till 2016 he was also head of the forensic DNA‐analysis laboratory, which he founded at the University of Ghent, accredited and recognized by the Belgian government. He remains in the forensic field as dedicated DNA expert. 

He is chair of the Belgian Medicines Committee, member of the Scientific Advise Working Party of the European Medicines Agency. He is also the director of the ProGenTomics platform of the University of Ghent, providing amongst others proteomics and mainly mass spectrometry based protein analytical tools to the research community.

He is a partner in NXT‐GNT, a research consortium providing the research community next generation DNA‐sequencing. He is member of the board of directors of the VIB. 

His research focuses on applying proteomics and genomics platforms (including Next Generation Sequencing) in the field of post translational protein modifications, stem cell development, prenatal genetic diagnosis, (auto‐)immunity and forensics and he is (co‐)author of over 350 scientific papers.