prof. dr. Elfride De Baere
- ORCID iD
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0000-0002-5609-6895
- Bio (via ORCID)
- Elfride De Baere (°1971) is a Senior Full Professor at Ghent University and Head of Lab at the Center for Medical Genetics Ghent (CMGG) of the Ghent University Hospital. A physician-scientist specializing in rare diseases, her research focuses on the genetics of inherited retinal diseases (IRDs) and the regulation of the neuroretina and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) through multi-omics approaches. Key contributions include: Missing heritability in IRD and developmental diseases: She has identified causative genes and variants underlying IRDs, elucidating pathways like retinal transcription, ubiquitination, ciliary function, and splicing. She pioneered the study of non-coding variants, including deep-intronic and cis-regulatory variants, structural variants, and hypomorphic alleles. Her work demonstrated therapeutic potential for IRD. Retinal cis-regulatory landscapes: Her team has characterized ultraconserved non-coding elements (UCNEs) and chromatin interactions as cis-regulatory elements (CREs) in retinal development. Her team recently mapped the differential 3D genome architecture of the retina and RPE, advancing understanding of gene regulation in rare eye diseases. Functional genomics models: She leverages human stem cells, Xenopus tropicalis, zebrafish, and in vitro systems to dissect the mechanisms of IRDs and to find therapeutic targets. Her dynamic research group include s 3 postdocs, 8 PhD students, 3 lab technicians, and master’s students. She is a member of the European Retinal Disease Consortium (ERDC) and has coordinated/coordinates key European research networks, including: H2020 MSCA ITN StarT, EJP RD Solve-RET, MSCA-DN ProgRET, a running European doctoral network on autosomal dominant retinal diseases (www.progret.eu). She founded the multidisciplinary RARE-MED consortium at Ghent University to advance precision medicine for rare diseases. She serves on the editorial board of Progress in Retinal and Eye Research and the program committees of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), ARVO, and ESHG. She is a member of AcademiaNet and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Foundation Fighting Blindness.
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RPE65 variant p.(E519K) causes a novel dominant adult-onset maculopathy in 83 affected individuals
(2025) -
- Journal Article
- A1
- open access
Generation and characterization of three human induced pluripotent stem cell lines (UGENTi005, UGENTi006 and UGENTi007) from patients with autosomal dominant adult-onset maculopathy due to RPE65 variant c.1555G>A, p.(E519K)
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- Journal Article
- A1
- open access
RPE65 variant p.(E519K) causes a novel dominant adult-onset maculopathy in 83 affected individuals
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Evaluation of a novel antisense oligonucleotide therapy targeting a 5’UTR variant in the RDH12 gene
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TurboID proximity interactome mapping reveals NR2E3 association with AP-1 and retinal developmental complexes
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BioID reveals that NR2E3 mediates transcriptional repression through the AP-1 complex
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- Journal Article
- A1
- open access
Generation of two iPSC lines (UGENTi003 and UGENTi004) from patients with intermediate rod-cone dystrophy carrying the c.[-123C>T;701G>A]; [806_810del] variants in the RDH12 gene
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Intermediate uveitis in common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) associated with a heterozygous variant in the TNFRSF13B gene
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Characterising the refractive error in paediatric patients with congenital stationary night blindness : a multicentre study
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- Journal Article
- A1
- open access
Elevated plasma complement factors in CRB1-associated inherited retinal dystrophies