Kathleen Freson graduated from the University of Leuven in 1996 as a Bio-Engineer of Cell and Gene Biotechnology.

From the same university, she obtained her Ph.D. degree in 2003. Her research interests include the study of novel genetic platelet disorders at the clinical, biochemical, and molecular level, especially the role of transcriptional regulation, signal transduction proteins and proteins involved in granule formation, transport and secretion.

She has been awarded a European hematology association (EHA) research fellowship and four young investigator awards from the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH). She was appointed associate professor in the faculty of medicine of the University of Leuven in 2009.

She has co-authored 83 research papers and is co-chair of the ISTH subcommittee ‘Genetics in Thrombosis and Haemostasis’.