Head of Synthetic Biology 
Dr. ir. Sofie DE MAESENEIRE is an expert in metabolic engineering of yeasts and fungal hosts aiming for the generation of production platforms for biosurfactants and specialty carbohydrates. After obtaining her PhD on the development of a novel fungal host for enzyme production, her research focused on the improvement of bio-ethanol production in yeast strains, the development of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a platform for the production of specialty sugars, and (tool development for) metabolic engineering of new (eukaryotic) production hosts.
Since 2009, she has been actively involved in the biosurfactant research performed at UGent (InBio.be). Her research, assistance and management of several national and international projects, in collaboration with several industrial partners and international research partners, resulted in over 34 peer-reviewed publications, 2 book chapters and the co-inventorship on several patents/patent applications. She assists several PhD students performing research related to the development of the biosurfactant platform technology.
