Dr. Matthijs Moerkerke

• Research stay – Stanford University, USA (2025)
  Biobehavioral Pediatric Pain Lab, Prof. Laura Simons
  Supported by Faculty Travel Grant (UGent) and FWO Travel Grant.

• Research stay – University of Oslo, Norway (2023)
  Oxytocin research Lab, Prof. Daniel Quintana
  Supported by FWO Travel Grant.

• PhD in Neuroscience Certificate (2022)

• Oxytocin Conference and Workshop – invited talk (2022)
  Ettore Majorana Foundation, Erice, Italy
  Supported by FWO Travel Grant.

• Regulatory Medical Writing Training Programme (2021)

• FreeSurfer MRI Analysis Course (2019)
  Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, MIT-Harvard, Boston, USA
  Supported by FWO Travel Grant.

• Good Clinical Practice Certificate (GCP) (2019)

• Spanish Language Courses (2017)

• MATLAB and Octave Certificate (2017)

• Laboratory Animal Science Certificate – FELASA B (2014)

University teaching

• Lecturer for Neurosciences (2nd BA Rehabilitation Sciences, Ghent University)
• Lecturer for Evidence-Based Medicine & Statistics (3rd BA Rehabilitation Sciences, Ghent University) — responsible for theoretical lectures and coordination of practical seminars.
• Leading curricular reform and supervising eight PhD teaching assistants.

Graduate and undergraduate supervision

• Co-promoter of 2 PhD projects
• Promoter of 10 MSc theses (Rehabilitation Sciences, Biomedical Sciences and Medicine)
• Co-promoter of 15 MSc theses
• Daily supervisor of 24 bachelor and master students
• Jury member for 16 MSc defenses
• Jury member for 1 PhD defense

Mentoring

• Mentor for junior researchers in pain science and stress physiology
• Backup ombudsman for the Postgraduate Studies in Advanced Medical Imaging programme at KU Leuven (2017–2023)
• Tutoring anatomy and biology to bachelor students via ‘Bijleshuis’ (2020-2024)

Scientific collaboration & service

• Steering-group member, Pain in Motion (PIM) international research consortium — facilitating cross-university scientific exchange and organizing international networking events (2023–present)
  Pain in Motion website

• Expert panel member, Active Monitoring of Oxytocin Research Evidence (AMORE), University of Oslo — contributing to global consensus-building and open-science initiatives (2025–present)
  AMORE website

• Scientific program & award manager, Pain Science in Motion Conference 2026 — responsible for program development, international communications, and global participant engagement (2025–present)
  PSIM Conference website

• Ad hoc grant reviewer, Foundation for Prader-Willi Research (USA) — oxytocin research grant review (2026)

Scientific outreach in mainstream media

• EOS Wetenschap — Oxytocin nasal spray may improve social bonding in children with autism
  EOS article

• ACAMH Podcast — Oxytocin administration, neural sensitivity and autism
  ACAMH podcast

• KU Leuven Blog — De invloed van oxytocine-neusspray op kinderen met autisme
  KU Leuven blog post

• Pain in Motion Blog — The role of oxytocin in chronic pain
  Pain in Motion blog post

Public science events

• UGent Research Day — jury member for poster presentations (2026)
• Day of Science (Dag van de Wetenschap) — public science outreach (yearly neuroscience workshops since 2017)
• Brain Awareness Week — neuroscience outreach events (2017)
• Child University KU Leuven — workshops for elementary school children (2016-2018)
• Autisme Beurs — public engagement on autism research (2017)

Memberships

• International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)
• Pain Science in Motion (PiM)
• International Society for Autism Research (INSAR)
• Belgian Association for Psychological Sciences (BAPS)
• Leuven Brain Institute (LBI)
• KU Leuven Child & Youth Institute (L-C&Y)
• Leuven Autism Research (LAuRes)
• Alliantieonderzoeksgroep UGent–VUB Motor Mind

Languages

●●●●● Dutch — C2 (Native)
●●●●● English — C1 (Fluent)
●●○○○ French — A2 (Basic)
●○○○○ Spanish — A1 (Basic)

Medical imaging proficiencies

Scanning, pre-processing and analysis of images taken with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
(functional, structural and diffusion weighted MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG), including stress physiology measures (heart rate, respiration rate and skin conductance). Software experience includes SPM12, Letswave 6, CAT12, CONN, Freesurfer.

Statistical skills

Statistical analysis of behavioural, clinical, and neuroimaging datasets using RStudio, JAMOVI, SPSS, and MATLAB, including data preprocessing, visualization, regression analyses, mixed-effects modelling, and hypothesis-driven statistical testing.

Programming skills

Programming scripts for fMRI and behavioural experiments in MATLAB and Presentation (Neurobehavioral Systems)

Laboratory skills

Animal experiments, organ dissection, tissue embedding, microscopic evaluation, and histological analysis.

Clinical skills:

Placing infuses, drawing blood, intramuscular and subdermal injections, ECG and EEG recordings, and CPR training.

Fulbright Postdoctoral Research Award 2026
Awarded for an 8 month research stay at Stanford University (CA, USA). Fulbright website

MARBEL Best Poster Award (3rd place) 2026
Awarded for the poster Pain and the brain: examining the link between conditioned pain modulation and structural gray matter properties at the Annual Meeting of the Belgian Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research Community (MaRBEL), Ghent, Belgium.

INSAR PhD Dissertation Award 2024
Awarded by the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR), presented at the Annual Meeting in Melbourne, Australia.
INSAR website

BCNBP “Belgium’s Got Talent” PhD Thesis Prize 2023
Awarded by the Belgian College of Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry (BCNBP) for best PhD thesis.
BCNBP website

Thérèse Vandereecken Prize for Clinical Medicine 2023
Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium recognising research on oxytocin’s neural, biological and behavioural effects in children with autism, awared to Prof. Alaerts (PhD copromotor)

KU Leuven Postdoctoral Research Grant 2023
Postdoctoral Mandate (PDM) awarded to continue doctoral research for one year after PhD defence.

• Moerkerke, M. The role of oxytocin in modulating pain and its interaction with stress in the context of musculoskeletal pain. EFIC 2025, Lyon, France. (oral talk)

• Moerkerke, M. PhD Dissertation Award Presentation: The role of oxytocin in autism. International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) 2024, Melbourne, Australia. (oral talk)

• Moerkerke, M., Daniels, N., Tibermont, L., Van der Donck, S., Tang, T., Prinsen, J., … Boets, B. (2023). Chronic oxytocin administration does not rescue reduced neural sensitivity towards emotional faces in autism. NeuroCog 2023, Brussels, Belgium. (oral talk)

• Moerkerke, M., Daniels, N., Tibermont, L., Van der Donck, S., Tang, T., Prinsen, J., Bamps, A., Debbaut, E., Steyaert, J., Alaerts, K., Boets, B. (2023). Influence of repeated intranasal oxytocin administration on neural activity during face processing in children with autism. International Society for Autism Research (INSAR), Stockholm, Sweden. (poster presentation)

• Moerkerke, M., Tibermont, L., Van der Donck, S., Daniels, N., Tang, T., Prinsen, J., Steyaert, J., Alaerts, K., Boets, B. (2022). Can longterm intranasal oxytocin administration rescue reduced neural sensitivity towards emotional faces in autism? Oxytocin and Vasopressin: From Brain Modulation, to Epigenetic Regulation and Clinical Applications, Erice, Sicily, Italy. (invited oral talk)

• Moerkerke, M., Daniels, N., Chubar, V., Van der Donck, S., Tang, T., Prinsen, J., Claes, S., Steyaert, J., Alaerts, K., Boets, B. (2022). Oxytocin system alterations in autism? Assessing endogenous oxytocin levels and OXTR epigenetics throughout a long-term intranasal oxytocin treatment. Oxytocin and Vasopressin: From Brain Modulation, to Epigenetic Regulation and Clinical Applications, Erice, Sicily, Italy. (poster presentation)

• Moerkerke, M., Chubar, V., Daniels, N., Van der Donck, S., Tang, T., Tibermont, L., Steyaert, J., Alaerts, K., Boets, B. (2022). Oxytocin receptor epigenetics in autism spectrum disorders. KU Leuven Child & Youth Institute, Leuven, Belgium. (oral talk)

• Moerkerke, M., Tibermont, L., Van der Donck, S., Daniels, N., Steyaert, J., Alaerts, K., Boets, B. (2021). The effect of oxytocin on reduced neural sensitivity towards emotional faces in autism. Leuven Brain Institute (LBI), KU Leuven, Belgium. (poster presentation)

• Moerkerke, M., Daniels, N., Van der Donck, S., Steyaert, J., Alaerts, K., Boets, B. (2021). Validating an EEG-based biomarker of socio-communicative impairments in ASD. International Society for Autism Research (INSAR), virtual. (poster presentation)

• Daniels, N., Moerkerke, M., Prinsen, J., Boets, B., Steyaert, J., Alaerts, K. (2021). Measurement of sympathetically driven autonomic arousal during eye contact in children with and without an autism diagnosis. International Society for Autism Research (INSAR), virtual. (oral presentation / open access abstract)

• Moerkerke, M., Daniels, N., Van der Donck, S., Steyaert, J., Alaerts, K., Boets, B. (2021). Neurobiological marker and intervention for socio-communicative impairments in autism spectrum disorders. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 44(S51–S52). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2021.01.079 (poster presentation)

• Moerkerke, M., Daniels, N., Stuer-Jespers, A., Steyaert, J., Alaerts, K., Boets, B. (2018). In search for an innovative neural marker and intervention for socio-communicative difficulties in children with and without autism spectrum disorders. Understanding the Neuroregulatory Actions of Oxytocin and its Potential Clinical Applications, Erice, Sicily, Italy. (poster presentation)