Nele Steenackers (Belgium), Winner of the Award in Clinical Research, is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism (NUTRIM) at Maastricht University, Netherlands. She is a biomedical scientist specialized in nutrition, a registered dietitian, and trained in health economics. Her research examines how lifestyle and nutrition can support sustainable obesity treatment across care settings with a particular interest in preventive approaches and behavioral factors that shape treatment response.
She obtained her PhD in Biomedical Sciences at KU Leuven Belgium, where she investigated how obesity and bariatric surgery alter gastrointestinal transit, pH, bile acid metabolism, and nutrient absorption. This work contributed to a better understanding of nutritional deficiencies and metabolic adaptation in chronic care. Her current research extends this translational framework, examining how dietary patterns, food-related behaviors, and gastrointestinal physiology interact with treatment response, positioning nutrition as both a supportive and optimizing strategy alongside surgical and pharmacological treatment. Alongside biological mechanisms, her work considers the cognitive, behavioral, and contextual factors that influence how patients experience and adhere to treatment in real-world settings. Beyond academia, she actively bridges science, clinical practice, and policy working with patient organizations, and healthcare professionals, to translate research into accessible, person-centered obesity care.
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