Stein Aerts
Stein Aerts is a Belgian bio-engineer and computational biologist. He leads the Laboratory of Computational Biology at VIB and KU Leuven (University of Leuven), and has received several accolades for his research into the workings of the genomic regulatory code. Early life and education Aerts was born and raised in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium, where he completed his secondary education at Heilig-Hart College. He obtained a Master's degree in Bioscience Engineering (Molecular Biology) from the University of Leuven, and subsequently combined a job as Assistant IT Project Leader at Janssen Pharmaceutica with advanced studies in Applied Computer Science at the University of Brussels. He obtained a PhD in Engineering (Bioinformatics), working at the Department of Electrical Engineering ESAT-SCD at the University of Leuven. Academic career Aerts completed his postdoc training working on the genomics of gene regulation in the fruit fly model Drosophila melanogaster in the lab of Bassem Hassan at VIB in Leuven, including a research visit at the Developmental Biology Institute of Marseille, Luminy (IBDML), in France, with Denis Thierry and Carl Herrmann. In 2009, Aerts was appointed assistant professor at the University of Leuven, where he is now full professor, and heads the Laboratory of Computational Biology at the