Inge Mertens is trained as Biochemist (2001) and obtained her PhD degree in Biochemistry in 2005 from the Catholic University of Leuven. After a FWO postdoc at the same University, she joined VITO (Flemish Institute for Technological Research, Mol, Belgium) in 2009 where she started as a researcher and set up a collaboration with the University of Antwerp in clinical proteomics. In 2015, she obtained a part time professorship at UAntwerpen and since 2016, she is the coordinator of the Centre for Proteomics. She is partner in several national and international projects in the field of clinical proteomics and liquid biopsy biomarker discovery. Currently, her main research focus is the use of extracellular vesicles from liquid biopsies as a protein biomarker source related to oncology and neurodegenerative diseases. She is co-author of more than 40 peer-reviewed international scientific papers.