Ingeborg Stalmans

Prof Ingeborg Stalmans heads the Research Group Ophthalmology (RGO) at the KU Leuven as well as the glaucoma unit of the ophthalmology department at UZ Leuven. She obtained her medical degree with greatest distinction in 1996 and, having received a scholarship from the Research Foundation – Flanders, combined her residency in Ophthalmology in Leuven with basic research in the laboratory of Professor Carmeliet and Professor Collen (1997–2002). The subject of her PhD was the role of VEGF in retinal angiogenesis and in the pathogenesis of DiGeorge syndrome. This work resulted in several high-impact papers such as Nature, Cell and PNAS, and was rewarded by the GlaxoSmith-Kline prize. The current focus of her basic and clinical research work is medical glaucoma therapy, glaucoma surgery and retinal imaging as a biomarker for systemic diseases.