About our research group/lab
Our research
Immune Monitoring
We have a wide range of assays to monitor pathways of donor directed reactivity. These assays focus on unraveling the T and B cell mediated immune responses and to study the mode of action of immunosuppressive drugs with the aim to titrate the immunosuppressive burden on our patients in such a way that side-effects are kept at a minimum while at the same time rejection processes are prevented. For this we also study molecular markers to identify patients with rejection in a minimally invasive way in blood or urine.
Tissue Repair & Cell Therapy
We study repair of diseased (transplant) organs by use of cellular therapies such as mesenchymal stem cells. These cells can suppress devastating immune responses against injured organs and stimulate cells within the organs to proliferate and differentiate. Furthermore, we are working on the generation of miniature kidney tissue in the laboratory, so called organoids, from primitive stem cells, which may one day be implanted in the diseased kidney. The aim of these studies is to improve the quality of transplant organs and to repair diseased organs to delay the need for transplantation.
Key Publications
Collaborations
Collaboration within Erasmus MC
Departments of
- Surgery
- Gastroenterology and Hepatology
- Cardiology
- Thoracic Surgery
- Pulmonary Diseases
- Pathology
- Immunology
- Urology
- Orthopeadics
- Developmental Biology
- Medical Oncology
- Clinical Chemistry
- Pharmacology
Collaboration outside of Erasmus MC
Collaborations in Immune Monitoring
- West China Hospital of the University of Sichuan (prof dr Wang)
- University of Utrecht (prof dr Asselbergs)
- All academic centra of the Netherlands in the PROCARE consortium (coordinated by Dr Otten, UMCU)
- LUMC (dr Heidt, dr Roelen)
- Columbia University (prof dr Zorn)
- Necker Hospital (prof dr Loupy)
Collaborations in Tissue Injury and Repair & Cell Therapy
- University of Aarhus (prof dr Jesperson)
- University of Oxford (prof dr Ploeg/ dr Issa)
- University of Groningen (prof dr Leuvenink)
- University of Regensburg (prof dr Geissler)
- University of Birmingham (prof dr Newsome)
