Infection & Inflammation

Infection & Inflammation

This sub-theme covers two important areas of biomedical research:

1) Inflammatory diseases, some of which may have an autoinflammatory or autoimmune mechanism.

The aim is to identify disease mechanisms that encompass both the innate and adaptive immune system and the identification of modifier genes and posttranslational modifications, including autoantigens, to explain tissue specificity of these conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis, gouty arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, psoriasis, diabetes, systemic lupus erythematosus and hyper IgD syndrome.

2) Infectious diseases with a high societal burden.

The focus lies on the role of the innate immune system in pathogen recognition and host defence (fungal, bacterial and viral infections), on pathogen-host interactions (e.g., immune evasion mechanisms of pathogens), vector biology (e.g. interaction malaria and Dengue virus with mosquitos), anti-microbial drugs and development of drug-resistance (e.g. invasive aspergillosis), vaccine development (e.g. malaria, Strepto-coccus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae,Moraxella catarrhalis), and the role of pathogens in the development of (chronic) inflammatory diseases (e.g. role enteroviruses in type 1 diabetes development).

Theme leader: Frank van Kuppeveld