Bram Verstockt, MD Phd
Gastroenterology
Bram Verstockt, MD, PhD, is a principal investigator and assistant professor at KU Leuven, and a staff member of the IBD team within the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at University Hospitals Leuven since 2021. He provides comprehensive care for patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), leads the multidisciplinary IBD clinic in close collaboration with the colorectal surgeons and the entire IBD team, and drives the implementation of intestinal ultrasound (IUS) within the Leuven IBD unit.
He obtained his medical degree from KU Leuven in 2013 and completed his Belgian board certification in Gastroenterology in 2021. During his training, he undertook internships at Mater Dei Hospital (Malta), Onze-Lieve-Vrouw ziekenhuis (Aalst), Imelda Ziekenhuis (Bonheiden) and UZ Leuven. In 2021, he completed an additional fellowship in intestinal ultrasound at Lüneburg University, becoming the first Belgian ECCO-ESGAR certified IUS specialist and facilitating the implementation of IUS in Leuven and in Belgium.
In 2015, he temporarily interrupted his clinical training to pursue a PhD, supported by the Flemish Foundation for Scientific Research (FWO), entitled “Predicting outcome in inflammatory bowel diseases: a multi-omics approach – creating opportunities for personalised medicine”, which he successfully defended in 2019. As part of his doctoral training, he spent a research period at University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke’s Hospital, working in the laboratory of Professor Kenneth Smith in collaboration with Dr. James Lee.
His research focuses on non-invasive disease monitoring in IBD, with a particular emphasis on intestinal ultrasound and the optimisation of imaging techniques, including radiomics and artificial intelligence. His translational work aims to identify predictive and prognostic biomarkers to advance personalised medicine and to further unravel IBD heterogeneity, including perianal disease, fibrostricturing disease, and fatigue, using multi-omics approaches and organoid models. He is also a co-founder of the COLLIBRI proteomics consortium in IBD.
Bram has held several international leadership roles. He previously served as chair of the Young European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (Y-ECCO) and chair of the Scientific Committee of the International Bowel Ultrasound Group (IBUS). He currently chairs the Belgian IBD Biobank (BIO-BIRD), serves as Vice President of the European Microscopic Colitis Group, and is a board member of the ECCO Guideline Committee, the Belgian IBD Scientific Committee, and the IBUS Collaboration Committee. In addition, he is associate editor of the Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis and an active reviewer for major journals, funding bodies, and international conferences.
He has received multiple awards, including the Prijs Prof. Dr. Jan De Grootte (2013), the Horlait-Dapsens Prize (2020), and the KU Leuven Research Council Award in Biomedical Sciences (2022). In 2025, he was honoured with both the ECCO Young Investigator Award and the UEG Rising Star distinction. His work has been supported by several competitive grants, including funding from the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO), the Helmsley Charitable Trust, BIRD, and CCV VZW. In 2020, he also reached the semi-finals of the Flemish PhD Cup.
