The amazing organization of biological processes in nature as well as the wonders of man-made technology have always been able to fascinate me. This dual interest for Biomedicine and Engineering has driven my choices throughout my education and professional life, embracing both. I studied Medicine, Biomedical Sciences and Bio-engineering, and graduated magna cum laude from the KU Leuven as Bio-engineer cellular and genetic engineering. I obtained my PhD in 2010 from the KU Leuven Faculty of Medicine, introducing in vivo imaging methodology for the investigation of the molecular pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease. During my postdoctoral fellowships at KU Leuven, Centre for Genetic Regulation (Barcelona, Spain) and Institut Pasteur (Paris, France) I further developed my expertise in multimodal non-invasive imaging techniques - mainly MRI, optical imaging and computed tomography. I returned to Belgium to become Professor (tenure track) in Multimodal Preclinical Imaging at the Department of Imaging and Pathology (KU Leuven) since October 2015, to start a new group and independent research line at KU Leuven. My research focuses on tracking and unravelling disease processes by developing novel complementary imaging technologies and applications that allow to non-invasively and therefore repeatedly interrogate living organisms. I thereby aim to yield better insight in pathogenic processes that involve multiple systems that interact dynamically in time and space, such as in lung diseases and during infections (host response, dissemination). My mission is to bring imaging technology engineering and biomedical research together, to create cross-over and truly interdisciplinary research that I believe is indispensable to generate the synergy that will lead to groundbreaking insights. My ambition is to contribute to both answering biological questions in my own field of interest, as to provide the thereby generated imaging tools for support to the entire research community via collaborations and open-access imaging platform. I am part of the team of experts that runs the Molecular Small Animal Imaging Centre (MoSAIC), a cutting-edge facility combining multiple imaging modalities for biomedical research. Research is a team sport, therefore I collaborate intensively with my local as well as international colleagues in the fields of Imaging, Pneumology, Immunology, Infectious Diseases and Geno-Phenotyping, seeking and finding that interdisciplinarity and synergy.