PI – Sarah Vergult

Principal Investigator (PI) Assistant Professor

Department of Biomolecular Medicine, Ghent University

Sarah Vergult

Who is Sarah?

Sarah successfully completed her PhD in October 2012 at Ghent University under the supervision of prof Björn Menten and prof Geert Mortier (UA, University of Antwerp). Her PhD at the Center for Medical Genetics Ghent (CMGG) focused on the implementation of mate-pair sequencing for the detection of structural variation in the genome of patients with neurodevelopmental disorders.

The genomic studies during her PhD triggered her interest to functionally unravel the molecular causes of neurodevelopmental disorders. Therefore, during her postdoctoral research, she shifted to functional work and set up a research line dedicated to uncovering the regulatory mechanisms governing genes implicated in neurodevelopment(al disorders). Importantly, she also maintained her connection to the clinic and played a significant role in introducing Whole Exome Sequencing at the CMGG.

In October 2019, Sarah was appointed as an assistant professor within the RARE-MED consortium at Ghent University. Her research within this consortium focuses on investigating the noncoding portion of the genome in the context of rare disorders. The RARE-MED consortium serves as a collaborative platform that brings together clinical and laboratory experts to advance research on rare disorders. Leveraging her experiences in both molecular diagnostics and fundamental research, Sarah’s work with the FunGen team aims to bridge the gap between fundamental and clinical research.

Sarah welcomes opportunities for fruitful collaborations and encourages interested parties to reach out!

The people powering FunGen Lab

Our team consists of a young and enthusiastic team of researchers who strive to advance the field in understanding the genetic causes of neurodevelopmental disorders.