Geert De Jaeger's Biography

Geert De Jaeger, Associate Director, Universiteit Gent

Dr Geert De Jaeger obtained his PhD in Biotechnology in 1997 at Ghent University under the supervision of Prof. Ann Depicker and Prof. Marc Van Montagu. In 2002, he became group leader in the department for Plant Systems Biology of the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), and is currently associate-professor in the department for Plant Biotechnology and bioinformatics at Ghent University. His research is based on developing technology for discovering protein-protein interactions and recently also interactions between proteins and nucleic acids. At the core of his research group lies a state of the art platform for the purification and functional analysis of protein complexes from plants through AP-MS. Numerous collaborations with international research teams delivered co-authorship on more than 25% of all papers published containing protein complex data. His research team applies this technology to discover knowledge on plant growth regulation, more specifically on the regulation of cell growth and proliferation in plants, and this both in the model plant Arabidopsis as in crop plants such as corn. Based on this knowledge, new strategies are derived to engineer plant growth and yield.