Professor, Head of Department, Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis, Ghent University, Belgium.
Dr. Coenye's Ph.D. studies were funded by the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT) and the Cystic Fibrosis Trust (UK) and were carried out in the Laboratory of Microbiology in the Faculty of Sciences at Ghent University, under the B. cepaciasupervision of Prof. Peter Vandamme.Subsequently Dr.Coenye worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof. John J. LiPuma (University of Michigan) on epidemiology and population structure of B.cepacia complex isolates and the identification of unusual respiratory pathogens present in the lungs of CF patients.

Upon his return to Belgium, he rejoined the group of Peter Vandamme to continue his work on the taxonomy of Gram-negative non-fermenters and the use of novel approaches (based on whole-genome sequences) in bacterial taxonomy. His work was funded by the Belgian Federal Government (a DWTC Return Grant) and the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders (FWO Postdoctoral Fellowship). For this taxonomic work he received the 2007 Dade Behring MicroScan Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Microbiology and the American Academy for Microbiology. He joined the LPM (as a postdoctoral research and teaching assistant) in April 2005 and was appointed as research professor in October 2006. In the LPM the "social behavior" of a wide range of organisms are studied (both bacteria and funghi), both in single and multispecies consortia, and within the context of a wide range of infectious diseases (including acne, chronically infected wounds and chronic respiratory tract infections in CF patients).

Skills and Expertise:

PCR, Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Antimicrobials, Microbial Molecular Biology, Antibiotic Resistance, Molecular Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology, Microbial Ecology, Antibiotics, Pathogens, Bacteria, Biofilm Formation, Biofilms, Cystic Fibrosis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Virulence Factors, Quorum Sensing, Candida albicans, Quorum Sensing and Biofilms

Projects:

1.Predation and competence in streptococci (Johann Mignolet, Pascal Hols, Tom Coenye, Laura Ledesma, Andrea M Sass, Julien Damoczi, Guillaume Cerckel, and Sylvie Nessler), Pascal Hols’s Lab
2.AMP-based antibiofilm agents (Lucia Grassi, Prof Giovanna Batoni, Mariagrazia Di Luca, Giuseppantonio Maisetta, Andrea C Rinaldi, Tom Coenye, Aurelie Crabbe), Andrea C Rinaldi’s Lab
3.Quorum Quenching (Ying Su, Xiao-Hua Zhang, Tom Coenye, Gilles Brackman, Kaihao Tang, Xiaochong Shi, Yunhui Zhang, Fangyuan Cui, Xia Zhao, Sujie Dong, Ke An, Na Liu)
4.Lasers and endodontic cleaning and disinfection (Roeland De Moor, Maarten Meire, Rosalie Swimberghe, Andreas Moritz, Tom Coenye, Kevin Braeckmans)
5.Vaginal Ring (Glenn Verstraete, Wouter Grymonpre, Bruno G De Geest, Jeroen Van Renterghem, Tom Coenye, Valerie Vanhoorne, Sabah Kasmi, Davinia Brouckaert), Archived project
6.Sociomicrobiology – biofilms – quorum sensing (Tom Coenye)