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       Dr Heidi declercq 

                     

 

 

 

 

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Afilliation

  • Bioprint Facility and Tissue Engineering Group
    Department of Human Structure and Repair, Faculty of Medicine and Health SciencesGhent University, Campus UZ, Corneel Heymanslaan 10 (6B3, entrance 46), 9000 Ghent

  • Founding member of Ghent Alliance for Tissue Engineering

 

Research focus

Heidi Declercq is Dr-Assistant at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences since 2015. In 2017 she became head of the Tissue Engineering group with embedded the Bioprint Facility. Her group aims to biofabricate complex and vascularized tissues via top-down and/or bottom up tissue engineering technologies. Hybrid bioprinting combines both approaches to fabricate tissues. Cellular building blocks are used to bioprint 3D functional tissues with applications in regenerative medicine and 3D in vitro models. Tissue-specific cellular building blocks reflecting specific phenotypes (bone, (fibro)cartilage, heart valve, adipose tissue,…) have been established. In order to overcome the most challenging aspect in tissue engineering, vascularization, vascular building blocks have been created to establish a capillary-like network in 3D tissues. Combining cellular building blocks with smart biomaterials (hybrid materials or instructive biomaterials), will have a synergistic effect on the maturation and mechanical strength of the printed tissues. In parallel to regenerative medicine, this tissue engineering approach has now being expanded towards engineering and manipulating the tumor microenvironment.

 

Research team

  • Dr. H. Declercq

  • Ing C. Vercruysse

  • PhDs Lise De Moor, Arne Peirsmans, Sheida Shirazi, Elanagai Rathinam

  • Technicians Leen Pieters, Johanna Aernoudt, Greet Desmet, Toke Thiron

 

Biography 

Heidi Declercq graduated as Master in Industrial Engineering in Biochemistry (1997) and Biomedical Engineering at Ghent University (1999). She received her PhD in Medical Sciences (In vitro models for bone tissue engineering) from Ghent University (2005). 
As postdoctoral researcher, she showed her multidisciplinarity by working on either (embryonic) stem cells and biomaterials. She studied expansion and differentiation of human embryonic stem cells. She worked on scaffold parameters to enhance cellular differentiation. She was involved in the evolution of scaffold-based to developmental-inspired tissue engineering strategies, initially by at random assembling of microtissues and later on by bioprinting of cellular spheroids. In 2017 she became head of the Tissue Engineering group with embedded the Bioprint Facility. H. Declercq is lecturer (Cell & Tissue Culture, Biomaterials, Tissue Engineering) for bachelor and master students Biomedical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering.
Her multidisciplinary potential is demonstrated by authorship of more than 75 published A1 articles in leading journals of different research areas, leading to  a h-index of 18 (Web of Science) and a Research Gate score of 38,03. She is (co-)promotor of 6 PhDs, 1 defended PhD and guides several master thesis students. Her research (Biofabrication 2018) was highlighted in ‘EOS Wetenschap’: ‘Soon being able to culture a heart or stomach in the lab? Researchers from @TissueEngUGent developed miniscule clumps of cells possessing a blood vessel network and that now can be used to build organs’. It also got attention via an interview in Physics World ‘Cellular building blocks create life-like constructs’. 

She is the founder of GATE and CRIG member. 
 

 

Key publications: 

  • De Moor L, Merovci I, Baetens S, Verstraeten J, Kowalska P, Krysko D, De Vos W, Declercq H. High-throughput fabrication of vascularized spheroids for bioprinting. Biofabrication 2018; 10: 035009. IF= 6.838, Q1, ranking: 3/78 (Engineering, Biomedical)

  • Philips C, Campos F, Roosens A, Sanchez-Quevedo M, Carriel V*, Declercq H*. Qualitative evaluation of a novel detergent-based method for decellularization of peripheral nerves. * Equal contribution. Annals of Biomedical Engineering 2018. IF = 3.405, Q1, ranking: 16/78 (Engineering, Biomedical)

  • De Jaeghere E, De Vlieghere E, Van Hoorick J, Van Vlierberghe S, Wagemans G, Pieters L, Melsens E, Praet M, Van Dorpe J, Boone M, Ghobeira R, De Geyter N, Bracke M, Vanhove C, Neyt S, Berx G, De Geest B, Dubruel P, Declercq H, Ceelen W, De Wever O. Heterocellular 3D scaffolds as biomimetic to recapitulate the tumor microenvironment of peritoneal metastases in vitro and in vivo. Biomaterials 2018; 158: 95-105. IF=8.806, Q1, ranking 1/78 (Engineering, Biomedical)

  • Declercq H, De Caluwé T, Krysko O, Bachert C, Cornelissen M. Bone grafts engineered from human adipose tissue derived stem cells in dynamic 3D-environments. Biomaterials 2013; 34 (4): 1004-1014. IF=8.312, Q1, ranking 2/76 (Engineering, Biomedical)

  • Declercq H, Desmet T, Berneel E, Dubruel P, Cornelissen M. Synergistic effect of surface modification and scaffold design of bioplotted poly-epsilon-caprolactone scaffolds in osteogenic tissue engineering. Acta Biomaterialia 2013; 9 (8): 7699-7708. IF=5.093, Q1, ranking 3/79 (Engineering, Biomedical)

 

Contact & links:

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