Having obtained a Licentiate degree in Physics at Ghent University (Belgium) in 1999, Kevin Braeckmans joined the Laboratory of General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy (Ghent University) to perform research on advanced optical microscopy methods for pharmaceutical applications. During his Ph.D. he was involved in the development of a new type of encoded microcarriers for diagnostic applications, for which he received the first price for Young Biotechnology Researchers from the Funds of Biotechnology (FBBF, Belgium) in 2005. In 2004 he received a post-doctoral fellowship from the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders, focusing on single particle tracking microscopy, during which time he was a visiting postdoctoral at the Christophe Bräuchle lab, Physikalische Chemie I, Ludwich Maximilians University Munich. In 2008 he was appointed as professor at Ghent University where he is currently leading the Bio-Photonics Research Group in close collaboration with the Ghent Research Group on Nanomedicines (prof. Stefaan De Smedt, prof. Katrien Remaut & prof. Koen Raemdonck). Since 2015 he holds a position as Guest Professor at the University of Lille (France), and became a full professor at Ghent University in 2018. A first line of research involves the study of biological barriers of functional nanomaterials by advanced microscopy techniques. Apart from that there is also an interest in developing optics based methods for medical diagnostics. A recent important research field in the group is the usage of light as mediator for nanoparticle and drug delivery. For this work he was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2015 (NANOBUBBLE, 2015-2020).
For more information on the research topics of the Biophotonic Research Group, see here.
