prof. Stefaan De Smedt (PhD)

The Laboratory of General Biochemistry & Physical Pharmacy houses the Biophotonic Research Team, the Ocular Delivery Team, the Lung Delivery team and the Vaccine delivery Team. The global research focus of the teams is on the delivery of bio-therapeutics, especially nucleic acids, for future therapies of lung and ocular diseases and cancer (through mRNA vaccination and cell therapies). The teams offer a multifaceted portfolio of competencies including drug delivery expertise, pharmacology, material knowledge, nanotechnology,  cell biology, immunology, biophysics, optics and bio-photonics. Together with partners in academia and industry they develop and evaluate delivery concepts and technologies for novel advanced therapies. 
 

Prof. Stefaan is Full Professor at Ghent University and founder of the Ghent Research Group on Nanomedicines. He studied pharmacy at Ghent University (Belgium). He graduated from Ghent University in 1995 and joined the pharmaceutical development group of Janssen Research Foundation. In 1999 he became Professor in Physical Pharmacy and Biopharmacy at Ghent University where he initiated research on advanced delivery of biologics/nanomedicines. Dr. De Smedt served as dean of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Ghent University from 2010 till 2014. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Ghent University (2014-2022) and the Board of Directors of Ghent University Hospital (2019-2022).

Since 2004 Dr. De Smedt serves as the European Associate Editor of the Journal of Controlled Release (JCR), being a leading journal in Pharmacology & Pharmacy; In 2015 he became Editor of JCR Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Since January 2023 he leads the Journal of Controlled Release as Editor-in-Chief.

Prof. Dr. Smedt is a member of the Flemish Royal Academy of Medicine (elected 2015), the European Academy of Sciences (section medicine & life sciences; elected 2018) and the Académie Nationale de Pharmacie de France (elected 2019).

Dr. De Smedt is a Distinguished Visiting Scientist of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Honorary Professor at NFU in Nanjing. In 2025 he served as Guest Professor at the University of Trieste in Italy.

Prof. De Smedt has been a member of many Belgian and (non-)European scientific expert panels, including the European Research Council (ERC) panel for Advanced Grants. Since 2025 he serves as chair of the ERC panel for Advanced Grants in the life sciences.
 

• overview
• prof. Stefaan De Smedt (PhD) - lab director
• prof. Kevin Braeckmans (PhD) - prinicipal investigator, full professor
• prof. Katrien Remaut (PhD) - principal investigator, associate professor
• prof. Koen Raemdonck (PhD) - principal investigator, full professor
• dr. Ine Lentacker (PhD) - principal investigator, senior researcher
• dr. Rein Verbeke (PhD) - FWO post-doctoral fellow
• dr. Junho Byun (PhD) - post-doctoral fellow
• Margo De Velder - doctoral fellow
• Kevin Mwangi - doctoral fellow
   

• Cationic Polymer Based Gene Delivery Systems
• Encoding Microcarriers by Spatial Selective Photobleaching. Nature Materials 2003, 2, 169-173
• Self-Rupturing Microcapsules. Advanced Materials 2005, 17, 2357-2361
• Advanced nanogel engineering for drug delivery. Soft Matter 2009, 5(4): 707-715
• The use of inhibitors to study endocytic pathways of gene carriers: optimisation and pitfalls. Molecular Therapy 2010, 18(3): 561-569
• Sizing Nanomatter in Biological Fluids by Fluorescence Single Particle Tracking. Nano Letters 2011, 10 (11), 4435-4442
• Sizing nanomaterials in bio-fluids by cFRAP enables protein aggregation measurements and diagnosis of bio-barrier permeability. Nature Communications 2016
• Broadening the Message: A Nanovaccine Co-Loaded with Messenger RNA and α-GalCer Induce Antitumor Immunity through Conventional and Natural Killer T Cells. ACS Nano 2019, accepted
• Photothermal nanofibers enable safe engineering of therapeutic cells. Nature Nanotechnology 2021 
• Laser-induced nanobubbles safely ablate vitreous opacities in vivo. Nature Nanotechnology 2022
   

• Laboratory of General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy
• address: Department of Pharmaceutics, Ottergemse Steenweg 460, 9000 Gent
• prof. De Smedt is interested to receive invitations for talks and presentations