Jonathan Douxfils
Laboratory investigations in hemostasis, thromboinflammation, serology and epigenetics
Development, validation and implementation of new laboratory diagnostic tools
Prof. Jonathan Douxfils PharmD, PhD
UNamur, Department of pharmacy, Research Unit in Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology (URPC)
CEO and Founder of QUALIblood s.a.*
Research portal UNamur | ORCID | ResearchGate | LinkedIn
Expertise and research interests
After being graduated in pharmaceutical sciences in 2011, Prof. Jonathan Douxfils obtained his PhD in biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences in 2015.
In 2017 he launched QUALIblood, a Contract Research Organization (CRO) aiming to provide the industries, hospitals and universities with central laboratory services for blood investigations. His company employs 10 people actively working on pre-clinical, phase-2 and phase-3 clinical trials in several pharmaceutical fields.
In 2018, he gained an academic position at the University of Namur in Belgium.
In 2019, he received the Eberhard F. Mammen Young Investigator Award for his research on the development of a new algorithm based on thrombin generation to assess hormone-related prothrombotic changes.
In 2020, he was nominated as the “Namurois of Year”, category Sciences, a price rewarding people in the Namur community for their engagement and their scientific discovery.
During the COVID pandemic, in order to counter the wave of fraudulent in vitro diagnostic medical devices (IVD) that reached the market for only profit-benefit, he started several projects aiming at providing the laboratory with independent data on the performance of diagnostic assays. He started with his teams clinicals studies aiming at evaluating the serological response of COVID-19 patients and in vaccine recipients. He also started research on the risk of thrombotic events related to the cytokine storm.
The research directed by Prof. Douxfils played a leading role in the establishment of guidelines for the laboratory measurement of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs). These recommendations have been used so far by several Expert Societies involved in the field of thrombosis and hemostasis. He also provided his expertise for the development of a new contraceptive agent and has been actively involved in the discussion and the writing of the regulatory documents for the obtention of the marketing authorization.
He also exercised his expertise as a pharmacovigilance expert at the European Medicines Agency, has been co-chairmen of the SSC Control of Anticoagulation at the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH), is Member Expert Team Haemostasis Diagnostics at the ECAT, and he works as an Associate Editor in several scientific journals.
Passionate about clinical and laboratory research, he is involved in several projects aiming to solve pharmacological and/or epidemiological problems.
Thanks to his translational view of the pharmaceutical and medical device market from basic research to post-marketing pharmacovigilance, his collaborations with key opinion leaders but also with field practitioners, Prof. Jonathan Douxfils puts its expertise and know-how at the services of societal projects aiming to improve the safety and effectiveness of therapeutic agents in order to promote public health.
Group members
Advanced researchers: Dr. Laure Morimont and Dr. Julien Favresse (Clinique Saint-Luc Bouge)
PhD students: Jean-Louis Bayart (Clinique Saint-Pierre Ottignies), Emma Boretti, Hachem Bouarroudj, Jonathan Decarpentrie, Marie Didembourg, Constant Gillot, Lucie Raskin, and Julie Vassart
Research projects
- ONGOING Project title. Ongoing PhD thesis by Jean-Louis Bayart (Clinique Saint-Pierre Ottignies).
- ONGOING Project title. Ongoing PhD thesis by Hachem Bouarroudj.
- ONGOING The role of non-hormonal therapies in managing menopausal symptoms. Ongoing PhD thesis by Emma Boretti. Under co-supervision by Prof. Jonathan Douxfils (promoter), Prof. Charlotte Beaudart (co-promoter) and Prof. Jean-Michel Dogné (co-promoter).
- ONGOING Benefit risk evaluation and perception of estrogenic therapies over women life. Ongoing PhD thesis by Lucie Raskin. Under co-supervision by Prof. Jonathan Douxfils (promoter) and Prof. Charlotte Beaudart (co-promoter).
- ONGOING GT4HEALTH : Disruptive strategic research in gene therapy, for a holistic strengthening of Wallonia internationally, and the sustainability of its value chain.
- ONGOING Identification of biomarkers to evaluate anticoagulation induced by FXI inhibitors. Ongoing PhD thesis by Julie Vassart. Under co-supervision by Prof. Jonathan Douxfils (promoter) and Prof. Jean-Michel Dogné (co-promoter).
- ONGOING NucleoGlio (BioWin) : Development of a diagnostic test for glioblastoma and follow-up of patients. Ongoing PhD thesis by Jonathan Decarpentrie. Joint PhD programme at UNamur (Prof. Jonathan Douxfils) and Belgian Volition (Dr. Marielle Herzog).
- ONGOING PALPITATION : The PlAtelet Lipidome, a Promising dIagnostic or TherApeuTIc OptioN for HFpEF patients. ARC project. Prof. Sandrine Horman, UCLouvain (PI), Prof. Anne-Catherine Pouleur, UCLouvain (co-PI), Prof. Chantal Dessy, UCLouvain (co-PI) and Prof. Jonathan Douxfils, UNamur (co-PI)
- ONGOING The THROMBIMMUN project: Relationship between inflammation, immunity and thrombosis. Ongoing PhD thesis by Constant Gillot. Under co-supervision by Prof. Jonathan Douxfils (promoter) and Prof. Jean-Michel Dogné (co-promoter).
- ONGOING The HIC project: Evaluation of hormone-induced coagulopathy. Ongoing PhD thesis by Marie Didembourg. Under co-supervision by Prof. Jonathan Douxfils (promoter) and Prof. Jean-Michel Dogné (co-promoter).
- ONGOING The MAS project: Measure And See the activity of direct oral anticoagulant in the clinical context. Research collaboration between UNamur (Prof. Jonathan Douxfils, Prof. Jean-Michel Dogné, Romain Siriez), Clinique Saint-Luc Bouge (Julien Favresse) and CHU UCL Namur (Prof. François Mullier and Dr. Michaël Hardy).
- ONGOING The AVRI project: Evaluation of the risk of radiotherapy-induced atherosclerosis. Research collaboration between UNamur (Prof. Jonathan Douxfils, Prof. Jean-Michel Dogné, Dr. Céline Bouvy) and ULiège (Prof. Cécile Oury, Nathalie Donis).
- ONGOING The COVIMOA project: Collecting blood for SARS-CoV-2 virus detection and serological investigation. Research collaboration between UNamur (Prof. Jonathan Douxfils, Hélène Haguet), QUALIblood (Prof. Jonathan Douxfils and Clara David), Clinique Saint-Pierre Ottignies (Jean-Louis Bayart) and Clinique Saint-Luc Bouge (Julien Favresse).
- ONGOING The COVILAB project: Clinical laboratory investigations related to COVID-19. Research collaboration between UNamur (Prof. Jonathan Douxfils, Prof. Jean-Michel Dogné, Hélène Haguet, Constant Gillot and Laure Morimont), QUALIblood (Prof. Jonathan Douxfils, Céline Bouvy, Laure Morimont and Sabrina Melchionda), Clinique Saint-Luc Bouge (Julien Favresse), Hôpitaux Iris Sud (Dr. Marie Tre-Hardy), and CHU UCL Namur (Prof. François Mullier and Dr. Michaël Hardy).
- PhD thesis defended by Julien Favresse (Clinical biologist at Clinique Saint-Luc Bouge) on 01/07/2024. .
- PhD thesis by Romain Siriez on 06/07/2022. Under co-supervision by Prof. Jonathan Douxfils, UNamur, NARILIS (promoter), Prof. Jean-Michel Dogné, UNamur, NARILIS (co-promoter), Dr. Julie Laloy, UNamur, NARILIS (co-promoter). .
- PhD thesis defended by Hélène Haguet on 11/02/2022. Under co-supervision by Prof. Jonathan Douxfils, UNamur, NARILIS (promoter) and Prof. François Mullier, CHU UCL Namur, Hematology laboratory (co-promoter). .
Selected publications
Didembourg M, Locquet M, Raskin L, Tchimchoua BT, Dogné JM, Beaudart C, Douxfils J. Lower reporting of venous thromboembolisms events with natural estrogen-based COCs compared to ethinylestradiol containing pills: A disproportionality analysis of the Eudravigilance database. Contraception. 2024 Oct 16:110727.
Favresse J, Tré-Hardy M, Gillot C, Cupaiolo R, Wilmet A, Beukinga I, Blairon L, Bayart JL, Closset M, Wauthier L, Cabo J, David C, Elsen M, Dogné JM, Douxfils J. Vaccine-induced humoral response of BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 against BA.1, BA.5, and XBB.1.5. (sub)variants 6 months after a homologous booster: is immunogenicity equivalent? Heliyon. 2024 Aug 10;10(16):e36116.
Douxfils J, Raskin L, Didembourg M, Donis N, Dogné JM, Morimont L, Beaudart C. Are natural estrogens used in contraception at lower risk of venous thromboembolism than synthetic ones? A systematic literature review and meta-analysis. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2024 Aug 16;15:1428597.
Vassart J, Tafur A, Durante M, Boucher AY, Morimont L, Walenga JM, Harenberg J, Douxfils J. The DOAC (direct oral anticoagulant) Dipstick reliably excludes residual FXa inhibitors levels in the preoperative setting. Thromb Res. 2024 Jul;239:109023.
Gillot C, Tré-Hadry M, Cupaiolo R, Blairon L, Wilmet A, Beukinga I, Dogné JM, Douxfils J, Favresse J. Assessment of the neutralizing antibody response in Omicron breakthrough cases in healthcare workers who received the homologous booster of Moderna mRNA-1273. Virology. 2024 Jul:595:110082.
Favresse J, Gillot C, Cabo J, David C, Dogné JM, Douxfils J. Neutralizing antibody response to XBB.1.5, BA.2.86, FL.1.5.1 and JN.1 six months after the BNT162b2 bivalent booster. Int J Infect Dis. 2024 Apr 5:107028.
Vassart J, Didembourg M, Morimont L, Brisbois C, Jamart L, Lebreton A, Mullier F, Donis N, Favresse J, Dogné JM, Douxfils J. Asundexian in atrial fibrillation: Can pharmacodynamic data explain the failure? Thromb Res. 2024 Apr;236:236-239.
Didembourg M, Reda S, Oldenburg J, Rühl H, Douxfils J, Morimont L. Hemostatic imbalance induced by tamoxifen in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer patients: An observational study. Int J Lab Hematol. 2024 Jun;46(3):546-554.
Morimont L, Didembourg M, Bouvy C, Jost M, Taziaux M, Oligschlager Y, van Rooijen M, Gaspard U, Foidart JM, Douxfils J. Low thrombin generation in postmenopausal women using estetrol. Climacteric. 2024 Apr;27(2):193-201.
van Dievoet MA, Morimont L, Bouvy C, Gruson D, Stephenne X, Douxfils J. Biological variation of thrombin generation on ST Genesia. Int J Lab Hematol. 2024 Jun;46(3):564-567.
Favresse J, Gillot C, Closset M, Cabo J, Wauthier L, David C, Elsen M, Dogné JM, Douxfils J. Durability of humoral and cellular immunity six months after the BNT162b2 bivalent booster. J Med Virol. 2024 Jan;96(1):e29365.
Douxfils J, Beaudart C, Dogné JM. Risk of neoplasm with the neurokinin 3 receptor antagonist fezolinetant. Lancet. 2023 Oct 18:S0140-6736(23)01634-3.
Douxfils J, Bouvy C, Morimont L. Evaluation of Activated Protein C Resistance Using Thrombin Generation Test. Methods Mol Biol. 2023;2663:211-224.
Favresse J, Cabo J, Douxfils J. Cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is predominantly boosted in vaccinated individuals with no history of infection. J Infect. 2023 May 19:S0163-4453(23)00292-X.
Gillot C, Bayart JL, Closset M, Cabo J, Maloteau V, Dogné JM, Douxfils J, Favresse J. Peri-infection titers of neutralizing and binding antibodies as a predictor of COVID-19 breakthrough infections in vaccinated healthcare professionals: importance of the timing. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2023 Apr 3;61(9):1670-1675.
Douxfils J, Gaspard U, Taziaux M, Jost M, Bouvy C, Lobo RA, Utian WH, Foidart JM. Impact of estetrol (E4) on hemostasis, metabolism and bone turnover in postmenopausal women. Climacteric. 2022 Nov 18:1-9.
Evrard J, Siriez R, Bouvy C, Favresse J, Yildiz H, Hainaut P, Mullier F, Dogné JM, Douxfils J. Comparison of analytical performances between clot waveform analysis and FibWave in edoxaban-treated patients and healthy controls. Res Pract Thromb Haemost. 2022 Nov 4;6(7):e12804.
Douxfils J, Morimont L, Gaspard U, Utian WH, Foidart JM. Estetrol is not a SERM but a NEST and has a specific safety profile on coagulation. Thromb Res. 2022 Sep 16:S0049-3848(22)00387-5.
Morimont L, Dechamps M, David C, Bouvy C, Gillot C, Haguet H, Favresse J, Ronvaux L, Candiracci J, Herzog M, Laterre PF, De Poortere J, Horman S, Beauloye C, Douxfils J. NETosis and Nucleosome Biomarkers in Septic Shock and Critical COVID-19 Patients: An Observational Study. Biomolecules. 2022 Jul 27;12(8):1038.
Favresse J, Gillot C, Bayart JL, David C, Simon G, Wauthier L, Closset M, Dogné JM, Douxfils J. Vaccine-induced binding and neutralizing antibodies against Omicron 6 months after a homologous BNT162b2 booster. J Med Virol. 2022 Sep 21;10.1002/jmv.28164.
Morimont L, Dechamps M, David C, Bouvy C, Gillot C, Haguet H, Favresse J, Ronvaux L, Candiracci J, Herzog M, Laterre PF, De Poortere J, Horman S, Beauloye C, Douxfils J. NETosis and Nucleosome Biomarkers in Septic Shock and Critical COVID-19 Patients: An Observational Study. Biomolecules. 2022 Jul 27;12(8):1038.
Favresse J, Bayart JL, David C, Gillot C, Wieërs G, Roussel G, Sondag G, Elsen M, Eucher C, Dogné JM, Douxfils J. Serum SARS-CoV-2 Antigens for the Determination of COVID-19 Severity. Viruses. 2022 Jul 28;14(8):1653.
Favresse J, Bayart JL, Mullier F, Elsen M, Eucher C, Eeckhoudt SV, Roy T, Wieers G, Laurent C, Dogné JM, Closset M, Douxfils J. Antibody titers decline 3-month post-vaccination with BNT162b2. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2021 Jul 7:1-8.
Favresse J, Gillot C, Oliveira M, Cadrobbi J, Elsen M, Eucher C, Laffineur K, Rosseels C, Van Eeckhoudt S, Nicolas JB, Morimont L, Dogné JM, Douxfils J. Head-to-Head Comparison of Rapid and Automated Antigen Detection Tests for the Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 Infection. J Clin Med. 2021 Jan 13;10(2):E265.
Douxfils J, Favresse J, Dogné JM, Lecompte T, Susen S, Cordonnier C, Lebreton A, Gosselin R, Sié P, Pernod G, Gruel Y, Nguyen P, Vayne C, Mullier F. Hypotheses behind the very rare cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Thromb Res. 2021 Jul;203:163-171.
Evrard J, Hardy M, Dogné JM, Lessire S, Maloteau V, Mullier F, Douxfils J. Are the DOAC plasma level thresholds appropriate for clinical decision-making? A reappraisal using thrombin generation testing. Int J Lab Hematol. 2021 Feb;43(1):e48-e51.
Haguet H, Bouvy C, Delvigne AS, Modaffari E, Wannez A, Sonveaux P, Dogné JM, Douxfils J. The Risk of Arterial Thrombosis in Patients With Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Treated With Second and Third Generation BCR-ABL Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors May Be Explained by Their Impact on Endothelial Cells: An In-Vitro Study. Front Pharmacol. 2020 Jul 3;11:1007.
Haguet H, Graux C, Mullier F, Dogné JM, Douxfils J. Long-Term Survival, Vascular Occlusive Events and Efficacy Biomarkers of First-Line Treatment of CML: A Meta-Analysis. Cancers (Basel). 2020 May 15;12(5):E1242.
Morimont L, Bouvy C, Delvigne AS, Dogné JM, Douxfils J. Proof of concept of a new scale for the harmonization and the standardization of the ETP-based APC resistance. J Thromb Haemost. 2020 Apr;18(4):895-904.
Siriez R, Alpan L, Elasaad K, Devel P, Laloy J, Dogné JM, Douxfils J. Importance of measuring pharmacologically active metabolites of edoxaban: development and validation of an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a tandem mass spectrometry method. J Thromb Thrombolysis. 2020 Apr;49(3):395-403.
Evrard J, Morimont L, Didembourg M, Haguet H, Siriez R, Dogné JM, Douxfils J. Assessment of acquired activated protein C resistance with the FibWave and comparison with the ETP-based APC resistance. Int J Lab Hematol. 2020 Dec 12.
Siriez R, Evrard J, Dogné JM, Pochet L, Bouvy C, Lessire S, Mullier F, Douxfils J. Development of new methodologies for the chromogenic estimation of betrixaban concentrations in plasma. Int J Lab Hematol. 2019 Jan 3.