Julie De Backer, MD, PhD, FESC, is a genetic cardiologist at Ghent University Hospital, Belgium.
She heads the Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) clinic and coordinates interdisciplinary programs for ACHD & Heritable Thoracic Aortic Disease (HTAD) patients, with a focus on patient centered care. She is appointed full professor at Ghent University. Her translational research focuses on in-depth cardiovascular profiling in Marfan syndrome and HTAD, exploring geno/phenotype relationships. She is an active member of VASCERN, the ESC Aorta and Peripheral Vascular Disease Working Group, and the Montalcino Aortic Consortium. She co-chaired the 2020 ESC guidelines for ACHD and the 2025 ESC guidelines for CVD and pregnancy.