Dr. Marthe De Boevre is a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Mycotoxicology & Public Health (Ghent University) since 2014. The results of her research work so far have resulted in a PhD-dissertation ‘Chemical risks related to food and feed containing masked Fusarium mycotoxins’. She has a strong international research network with high-profile projects and peer-reviewed A1-publications (#A1 >70). She also has published 3 book chapters; in addition, she is section editor ‘human health’ in World Mycotoxin Journal and guest editor of Special Issues in Toxins, including ‘Mycotoxin Biomarkers of Exposure’. Through her established network she is able to work with the most renown scientists in the field, and therefore she is able to participate in common-vision, holistic research. Through her projects, she also has successfully supervised >35 master students, 4 PhDs and 8 ongoing PhD-students.

Preliminary data of her successful collaboration with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) have revealed an unexpectedly high exposure above the upper tolerance level for some individual mycotoxins, in the European adult population (EFCOVAL & EPIC datasets). This dataset has given her the necessary tools to further develop her vision of the mycotoxin research field. The last years many research gaps on the relation between mycotoxins and their impact on human health remained unsolved. Via the acquired results she was able to disentangle these research gaps by illustrating the important concept of internal and external dietary mycotoxin exposure, and the need to use both methodologies to frame and interpret mycotoxin exposure. Recently she was able to explore associations among multiple mycotoxin exposure and colorectal & hepatocellular cancer, a-first-in-research.

Besides the important fundamental work, Dr. Marthe De Boevre, is currently strengthening mycotoxin research and collaboration in the South in the framework of MYTOX-SOUTH (http://mytoxsouth.org). One of her major achievements is the coordinatorship of the International Thematic Network ‘MYTOX-SOUTH’. MYTOX-SOUTH aims to harness the expertise and infrastructure available at Ghent University to strengthen the capacity of the Southern partners to tackle the mycotoxin problem and the associated food safety issues. This partnership opens a new ground-breaking era of research and opportunities for the improvement of human health at global level, more specifically in developing countries.