Professor Jean-Michel Foidart

Professor Jean-Michel Foidart was born in Liege (Belgium) on October 4th, 1949. He is married and father of 4 children.

He was educated at the University of Liege where he received his M.D. degree in July 1974 (Highest distinction and congratulations of the Jury). He successfully passed the examination of the Educational Council for Foreign Medical Graduates and became a fellow at the Women’s Clinic at John Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore, MD, USA) from 1976 to 1979. He also received a sound training in Biochemistry during a three year’s stay at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA) in the laboratory of Professor G.R. MARTIN. He became a Ph.D. in Cell Biology and Biochemistry in 1983. Upon his return in Belgium, he was appointed Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University Clinic at Bois de l’Abbaye in Seraing, from 1985 to 1987.

In 1988, he became Professor of Biology at the University of Liege, up to 1996 when he was appointed Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and chairman of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Senology at the same University. He has been an invited lecturer at the Universities of Paris VII and Paris XI since 1994 and received several international teaching awards in Belgian, French and US Universities. He has received many honorary and scientific distinctions and organized more than 15 international congresses in the field of placentation, gynecology, and
gynecologic oncology.

He is a member of the editorial board of 8 different international peer-reviewed periodics and is a member of many national and international scientific committees, and a correspondant of the Belgian and French Academies of Medicine. His research concerns mainly experimental oncology. He is heading a laboratory with 30 scientists who are mainly conducting basic research in the field of proteases and angiogenesis during tumor development and metastases formation.

His fellowship at the John Fogarty International Research Center from 1977 to 1978, then as “visiting associate” at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda) and as “special postdoctoral fellow” at John Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore, USA), as well as other long term stays in Paris and at the University of Oulu (Finland) allowed him to have both a basic and a clinical training in the field of reproductive medicine. He is author and co-author of more than 320 publications with high impact factor (> 3).

He is currently Vice-President of the Belgian Society of Gynecology.