Lucas Van Bortel - Biography#

Luc(as) Van Bortel studied medicine at Ghent University and specialized in internal medicine and clinical pharmacology. He graduated in tropical medicine at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (Antwerp). As a research fellow he was on mission in Zaire for 2 years. He obtained a Ph.D. in Medicine in 1993 at Maastricht University and spent that year a 6-month intensive training in artery research with prof. dr. M. Safar and S. Laurent at Broussais Hospital Paris (Université Pierre et Marie Curie). For 30 years he was involved in research in arterial stiffness and in early clinical drug development. From 1985 until 2000 he was at the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht at Maastricht University (The Netherlands), where he became associate professor clinical pharmacology. During this period he was for 1 year also part time interim director cardiovascular research at Janssen Research Foundation (Belgium). From 2000 he was appointed full professor clinical pharmacology and pharmacotherapy at Ghent University (Belgium) where he founded Drug Research Unit Ghent (D.R.U.G.), the unit for early phase clinical drug research at Ghent University Hospital.

Luc(as) Van Bortel was also the leading professor of the Ghent University Hospital Hypertension Excellence Center. He led the Ghent Artery Research Group which had national and international collaboration. The main focus of the Ghent Artery Research Group was on ‘making arterial stiffness ready for use in clinical practice’. This research team was awarded in 2006 as the best research team on hypertension in Belgium. The Ghent Artery Research Group organised and hosted the ARTERY8 conference.

Luc(as) Van Bortel is founding member of the ARTERY Society, was chairman of the Working Group on Vascular Structure and Function of the European Society of Hypertension. He was president of the Artery Society and of the Belgian Hypertension Committee. For many years he was on the board of the Dutch Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Biopharmacy.

Luc(as) Van Bortel retired on October 01 2015 and received the ARTERY Society lifetime achievement award on October 15 2016. He was awarded ‘honorary member’ of the Dutch Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Biopharmacy and of Healixia. In 2021 he was appointed by the minister of health as chairman of the Belgian College for Clinical Trials .