Ann-Sophie De Craemer (MD)

Ann-Sophie De Craemer (MD) is a clinical PhD student at the Rheumatology department of Ghent University Hospital, Belgium. During her training as a medical doctor, she participated in the ESEM Summer School on Biomedical Engineering in Dublin, Ireland. She received her medical degree in June 2015, followed by a 2-year clinical training in Internal Medicine. From October 2017, she started a PhD project in the field of spondyloarthritis (SpA). She participates in the follow-up of a large SpA patient cohort and in an investigator-initiated interventional trial about a treat-to-target approach in early axial SpA. Furthermore, she jointly conducts several MRI studies in order to refine imaging modalities in SpA. Apart from clinical studies, she also investigates the role of gut mucosal barrier integrity in the pathogenesis of SpA. This research has a more fundamental focus and should result in a more comprehensive insight into the initiation and progression of disease, which ultimately offers opportunities for new treatment strategies.