Rebekka Van Hoof
Post-Doc
Dr. Rebekka Van Hoof obtained her master’s degree in Biochemistry and Biotechnology at the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in 2017. Afterwards, she began a VITO pre-doctoral scholarship (2017-2019) and was awarded an FWO-SB scholarship for a joint PhD project between KU Leuven and the University of Hasselt in collaboration with VITO (2019-2023).
During this project, Dr. Van Hoof focused on improving molecular diagnostics for lung cancer in liquid biopsies. She employed two approaches: depleting wild-type target sequences to increase the sensitivity of low-abundant mutation detection in cell-free DNA, and using extracellular vesicle-derived DNA to enhance the sensitivity of early mutation detection.
Dr. Van Hoof joined the Environmental Intelligence Unit at VITO as an R&D professional, where she optimised a novel fluorescent-based DCS technique for nanoparticle (functionalization) analysis. In 2024, she continued as a postdoc in the same unit, working on developing a point-of-care test for leprosy diagnosis in blood samples using localised surface plasmon resonance (LSPR).
She also creates visual content on topics such as Digital Twins in Healthcare and Pharmacogenomics, for projects such as DigiTwin4PH. Additionally, she is also involved in establishing of the REALM academy training program and is passionate about communicating science to a broad audience.
