Biography

Rudi Beyaert is full professor at the Ghent University and Deputy Science Director at the VIB Center for Inflammation Research (Belgium) where he also leads the Unit of Molecular Signal Transduction in Inflammation Research. R. Beyaert has a track record of >30 years in molecular and cellular mechanism of inflammation and immunity. His most important discoveries include the role of MyD88 alternative splicing in TLR signalling, the anti-inflammatory role and mechanism of action of A20 (TNFAIP3), the discovery and characterization of ABIN (TNIP)-1, -2, -3 as ubiquitin-binding proteins and key regulators of inflammation, the development of IL-33 and TSLP cytokine traps, and the discovery of MALT1 paracaspase activity, which have inspired research in many labs worldwide. The Beyaert lab’s discovery that MALT1 plays a key role in innate and adaptive immune signalling has also triggered the development of MALT1 inhibitors for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease by several big pharma companies. Ongoing research mainly focuses on the molecular mechanisms that regulate immunity at epithelial barrier surfaces of the lung, skin and gut, and which are involved in inflammatory disease (asthma, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease) and immunodeficiency. We are also interested in genetic and environmental factors that contribute to IBD development in humans. In our research we are following an integrated molecular and immunological approach, combining functional studies on in vitro/ex vivo mouse and human cellular models with detailed phenotyping of gene targeted mice.
R. Beyaert authors over 300 peer-reviewed papers that have been cited >32 000 times (h-index 96), and 19 book chapters. He is also inventor on >15 patent applications, and expertise and research of the Beyaert lab contributed to 2 VIB spin-offs. His work has been recognized by a number of awards, including the Pfizer award and the five-yearly Prize of Fundamental Medical Sciences of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine. R. Beyaert was also recognized by Clarivate as ‘Highly Cited Researcher’ in the field of Immunology (2022 and 2023) and Cross-field (2024).
R. Beyaert is teaching several courses in the Bachelor and Master programme in Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the Ghent University. R. Beyaert has also shown strong leadership in the training and advancement of young scientists: 39 PhD students and 23 postdocs were trained in his lab, most of which have afterwards taken up important positions in academia (39%), industry (32%) or consulting (16%). Six of his former trainees now hold professor or assistant professor positions. R. Beyaert is on the editorial board of ‘The FEBS Journal’ and ‘Biochem. Pharmacol.’, and serves as an expert panel member for multiple national/international science funding organizations. R. Beyaert has been involved in several national and international research consortia or infrastructures. Since 2006 he is also coordinating the BCCM GeneCorner plasmid collection, which is Europe’s most active public resource of plasmids and host strains serving labs worldwide.

Most important contributions to the field in the last 10 years:
1. We demonstrated a role of MALT1 in immune homeostasis and inflammatory disease (McGuire et al., J. Neuroinfl., 2014; Kip et. J Virol, 2018a and 2018b; Gilis et al., Arthr. Rheum., 2019; Demeyer et al., Front Immunol, 2019; Van Nuffel et al., EMBO Rep, 2020; Demeyer et al., iScience, 2020).
2. We discovered novel MALT1 substrates and characterized their functional roles (Elton et al., FEBS J, 2016; Skordos et al., FEBS J, 2023).
3. We revealed novel functions and regulatory mechanisms of CARD9 and CARD14 as part of the MALT1 signalosome (Afonina et al., EMBO Rep, 2016; Van Nuffel et al., EMBO Rep, 2020; Staal et al., FEBS J., 2021; Vanneste et al., Bioemedicines, 2022; Styliani et al., Bioch. Pharmacol., 2024; Staal et al., FEBS J., 2024; O'Sullivan et al., Bioch. J., 2024).
4. We engineered several novel agonists or antagonists of cytokines (IL-4, IL-13, IL-33, TSLP) and cytokine receptors (IL-35R, IL-12Rb2) (Verstraete et al., Nature Comm, 2017 + patent US11001624B2; Holgado et al., JACI, 2019 + patent WO2014090800A1; Holgado et al., Front Immunol, 2020; patent WO2024018241A1 and WO2024018242A1).
5. We further documented the important role of A20 in tissue homeostasis and disease (Vereecke et al., Nature Comm., 2014; Vande Walle et al., Nature, 2014; Schuijs et al., Science, 2015; Martens et al., Nature Immunol., 2020; Holgado et al., J Allergy Clin Immunol, 2023; Layzell et al., Cell Death Diff., 2024).
6. We discovered several novel genes implicated in primary immunodeficiency (Naesens et al., J. Clin. Immunol., 2022; Naesens et al., Science Immunol., 2022) and discovered new phenotypes associated with mutations in genes implicated in human disease (Tavernier et al., Nature Comm., 2019; Hoste et al., J. Exp. Med., 2022).