Christine Van Broeckhoven

Christine Van Broeckhoven obtained her master’s degree in 1975 in Chemistry, with a minor in Biochemistry, from the University of Antwerp and her PhD in Molecular Biology in 1980. From 1979 to 1988, she did postdoctoral research on metabolic diseases at the Antwerp Institute for Hygiene. In 1983 she started her own lab on neurogenetics of neurodegenerative diseases at the University of Antwerp. In 1994, she obtained the Doctor in Science degree based on her Molecular Genetics research into Alzheimer’s disease. In 1996, she was a Distinguished Alzheimer Professor at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands; in 2001 a Guest Scientist in the Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, USA. Today, she is best known for her pioneering research into brain diseases in which she made several seminal contributions. Her work to unravel the genetic basis of neurodegenerative dementia and psychiatric diseases has been awarded several times by numerous national and international awards including the prestigious Potamkin Prize by the American Academy of Neurology (1993) the Belgian Prize Joseph Maisin (1995), the International L’Oréal/UNESCO Women in Science Award (2006),Paris; the European Inventor Award for Research (2011), the America MetLife Foundation Award for Medical Research (2012), New York and the Khalid Iqbal Lifetime Achievement Award (2020). In 1999, she was elected Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and the Arts. For her societal engagement, she was honored by the Belgian title of Royal Grand Officer in the Order of Leopold, 2006, and the French Order of Chevalier dans La Légion d’Honneur, 2008.