Iwijn De Vlaminck

Iwijn De Vlaminck

Associate Professor
Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering
Weill Hall, Room 301
650/7984570
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Biography

Iwijn De Vlaminck is an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Cornell University. Iwijn’s research is focused on the development of precision medicine technologies to monitor and study infectious and immune related disease. His research has led to noninvasive liquid biopsies to diagnose organ transplant rejection, urinary tract infection, blood-borne infection and complications of stem cell transplantation. He developed methods to spatially map the microbiome and the transcriptome. Iwijn’s research was recognized with the NIH New Innovator Award, the Noyce Foundation Assistant Professorship in the Life Sciences and a Rainin Foundation Synergy Award. He received teaching excellence awards from the College of Engineering in 2017 and 2022. He is a co-founder of Kanvas Biosciences.

Our mission is to improve human health through the development of precision medicine technologies to study and diagnose infectious, immune and microbiome-associated disease. Our research brings approaches from engineering, biophysics, and computational biology to genomics and medicine.

We pursue research in two areas:

  1. Liquid biopsies for infectious and immune-mediated disease: We investigate technologies and applications of circulating cell-free DNA in diagnostic medicine. We have developed molecular assays to obtain rich, sequence information from cell-free DNA in blood and urine, and computational methods to classify infectious and immune-mediated disease from cell-free DNA ‘omics data. We have demonstrated applications of these technologies in the monitoring of infection, host tissue injury due to infection, COVID-19, solid-organ transplant rejection, and graft-versus-host disease.
  2. Digital spatial profiling of microbiomes and infection in complex tissues: We investigate single-cell and spatial sequencing technologies to study infection in native, complex tissues and to spatially profile bacterial microbiomes and host-microbiome interactions.

For regularly updated information, visit the De Vlaminck Lab website pages: 

Visit our lab website for more information about our current research projects.

Research Interests

Selected Publications

For a full list of publications, visit our research website.

Selected Awards and Honors

  • 2022 Dorothy and Fred Chau, M.S. 74 Excellence in Teaching Award
  • 2021 BMES-CMBE Rising Star Junior Faculty Award
  • 2020 Research Excellence Award Cornell College of Engineering
  • 2019 Rainin Foundation Synergy Award
  • 2019 Inspiring mentor Merrill Scholars program, Cornell University
  • 2017 Robert ’55 and Vanne ’57 Cowie Excellence in Teaching Award
  • 2017 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award
  • 2015 Robert N. Noyce Assistant Professorship in Life Science and Technology, selected by Provost

Education

  • B.S. (Electronic Engineering), K.U. Leuven, 2000
  • M.S. (Electronic Engineering), K.U. Leuven, 2003
  • Ph.D. (Science and Engineering), K.U. Leuven, 2008

In the News

News
more about <span>Eurofins Viracor and Cornell University Sign Exclusive Licensing Agreement to Expand Access to Ground-Breaking Technologies for Assessing Organ and Tissue Damage in Transplant and COVID-19 Patients</span>

Eurofins Viracor and Cornell University Sign Exclusive Licensing Agreement to Expand Access to Ground-Breaking Technologies for Assessing Organ and Tissue Damage in Transplant and COVID-19 Patients

The Cornell team, led by Meinig School professor Iwijn De Vlaminck, has developed an alternative to biopsy – a novel, noninvasive blood test to measure organ injury from COVID-19. The test uses circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) to gauge the damage that COVID-19 inflicts on cells, tissues and organs. Read more about Eurofins Viracor and Cornell University Sign Exclusive Licensing Agreement to Expand Access to Ground-Breaking Technologies for Assessing Organ and Tissue Damage in Transplant and COVID-19 Patients

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