Dr G.R.A.M. D’Haens (1962) has been named professor of Inflammatory Intestinal Diseases at the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Medicine (AMC-UvA).

Geert D’Haens’ teaching will focus on inflammatory mechanisms in the digestive system, interactions with intestinal flora, the treatment of infections and inflammations of the gastrointestinal tract, and the mechanisms involved in absorption and digestion. As head of the AMC-UvA’s Inflammatory Bowel Diseases department, he directs research on new medicines and therapeutic strategies for inflammatory intestinal diseases. D’Haens also seeks to establish a link between research by the Tytgat Research Institute for Liver and Intestinal Diseases and patient care at the AMC-UvA.

D’Haens has worked at the Gastroenterology Department of the Imelda hospital in Bonheiden (Belgium) since 1999, where he has served as director of the Imelda GI Clinical Research Center since 2002. D’Haens serves as president of the Flemish Association for Gastroenterology and the clinical trial section of ECCO, the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization, of which he is also a co-founder. He also recently took up a position as scientific secretary of the IOIBD (International Organisation for Inflammatory Bowel Disease). He has published extensively in various professional journals such as such as Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Gut and Gastroenterology. In 2009, the Belgian Society of Internal Medicine presented D’Haens with an award for ‘Best Belgian Publication’.