Sebastiaan Theuns

Dr. Sebastiaan Theuns is the CEO and co-founder of PathoSense, a spin-off company from Ghent University that provides sequencing-based diagnostics, microbiota research, and whole-genome sequencing of pathogens for the animal health industry.

Sebastiaan earned his veterinary degree from Ghent University in 2010 and completed his PhD in 2015 under the supervision of Hans Nauwynck and Jelle Matthijnssens. During a postdoctoral VLAIO innovation mandate, he developed expertise in veterinary vaccine development while also recognizing the transformative potential of emerging DNA/RNA sequencing technologies for the diagnosis of infectious diseases.

Starting in 2017, his research, supported by the Industrial Research Fund and the Belgian Federal Authorities (FOD VVVL), led to the development of a comprehensive “sample-to-diagnostic interpretation” platform that does not require prior pathogen selection. This work culminated in the founding of PathoSense in October 2020. Since then, the platform has been used in more than 50 animal species by veterinarians across Europe and is available through partner laboratories in several countries throughout Europe and Asia.

R&D continues to be a central pillar of PathoSense’s growth. The company has secured multiple VLAIO grants (two Baekeland mandates, two Development projects, an Innovative Starter grant, and a Schaalklaar scale-up grant in 2024) focused on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), respiratory microbiota, and the identification of virulence factors, in collaboration with Ghent University and University of Antwerp. Sebastiaan also maintains extensive research collaborations with universities across Europe.

Sebastiaan and PathoSense were selected for the Belgian MedTechAccelerator (2018), StartIt@KBC (2020–2021), and the Vlerick Scale-Up Masterclass (2022). He is co-author of more than 50 scientific publications (h-index = 21), inventor of one patent, supervisor of several PhD candidates, and a frequent speaker at international conferences on diagnostics and genomics.

Updated CV 31-Mar-2026