Willem STAELS

Willem graduated as an MD from Ghent University in 2011 and was certified as a pediatrician in 2018. He got his PhD in 2018 for his thesis "Modulation of VEGF-A signaling by beta cells during pregnancy and islet transplantation" completed at BENE under the supervision of Harry and Nico. Next, he went to Paris for a postdoctoral fellowship at Institut Cochin with Raphael Scharfmann and training in pediatric endocrinology at Hôpital Necker with Michel Polak. In 2020, Willem came back to BENE and currently he is interested in islet vascularization and iron metabolism in beta cells. He is also a part-time clinical resident at the department of pediatric endocrinology at UZ Brussels led by Jean De Schepper.

As of September 2022, Willem and Nico succeeded Harry jointly as Principal Investigators of BENE.