prof. Lies Lahousse (PhD)
Professor (Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ghent University)
Principal investigator Precision medicine for chronic complex diseases (Pharmacoepidemiology)
Coordinator GLORIA Gezondheidsmonitor Member Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine
Co-supervisor Belgium Genome Library (BGB)
Partner PREWAPHARM (Prevention of Water Pollution by Pharmaceuticals)
Member International COPD Genetics Consortium (ICGC) on (epi)genetic determinants of COPD and COPD exacerbations
Member Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium (CHARGE) on (epi)genetic determinants of lung function
Research focus
My research line in pharmacoepidemiology combines aspects of clinical pharmacology and clinical epidemiology and studies drug use and (side)effects in large numbers of people to support rational drug use thereby improving health outcomes in the population. My research group focuses on therapy adherence and precision medicine including optimizing the benefit risk ratio of approved drugs by studying heterogeneity among phenotypes, endotypes and underlying genetics with the ultimate goal of improving care of patients with chronic complex diseases e.g. asthma and COPD.
By deep phenotyping and international collaboration in population genomics, we unravelled heritability and novel genetic variants of pulmonary function traits by genome-wide association studies. My group aims to further investigate these and other omics-data in interaction with approved drugs and translate pharmacogenomics into clinical practice.
Research team
- Delphine Vauterin - doctoral fellow
- Frauke Van Vaerenbergh - doctoral fellow
- Kristiaan Proesmans - doctoral fellow
- Valerie Dehondt - doctoral fellow
- Helena Cardon - doctoral fellow
- Lara Cossement - doctoral fellow
- Miel De Cooman - doctoral fellow
- Sam Beckx - doctoral fellow
Key publications
- Sex-specific associations between sleep apnoea and lung cancer risk in patients with COPD: a nationwide prospective cohort study. Lancet Reg Health Eur. 2025 Mar 20;52:101269. doi: 10.1016/j.lanepe.2025.101269.
- Anticoagulant-related bleeding as a sign of underlying tumoural lesions in patients with atrial fibrillation: a nationwide cohort study. Eur Heart J Open. 2024 Sep 24;4(5):oeae081. doi: 10.1093/ehjopen/oeae081
- The role of community pharmacists in primary and secondary prevention of skin cancer: an evaluation of a Flemish skin cancer prevention campaign. BMC Public Health. 2023 Dec 12;23(1):2490. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-17429-2.
- COPD and multimorbidity: recognising and addressing a syndemic occurrence. Lancet Respir Med. 2023 Nov;11(11):1020-1034. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(23)00261-8. Epub 2023 Sep 8.
- Smoking, blood DNA methylation sites and lung cancer risk. Environ Pollut. 2023 Oct 1;334:122153. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122153.
- Smoking-related dysregulation of plasma circulating microRNAs: the Rotterdam study. Hum Genomics. 2023 Jul 10;17(1):61. doi: 10.1186/s40246-023-00504-5.
Contact & links
- Lab address: Faculteit Farmaceutische Wetenschappen, Campus Heymans, Ottergemsesteenweg 460, 9000 Gent
- ORCID iD
- X (former Twitter)