Reina has been involved in our research institute from the start as program leader of the Inflammatory Diseases program. With her directorship at AII, Reina will continue along the existing lines, and would like to further stimulate the use of the cohorts that exist within Amsterdam UMC for immunological research in AII. And thus, stimulating good clinical collaborations with researchers will receive extra attention.
Reina' research group has a strong focus on immune regulation. Currently she is studying ho immune regulation occurs within lymph nodes and how non-immune cells, the support cells of the lymph nodes, influence this immune response. This influence is likely important in both cancer and lymphomas as well as in the development of autoimmune diseases.
Since her PhD research, Reina has been looking at environmental factors and their influence on the immune system. An example of an environmental factor is food, but the local cells around the lymph nodes are also environmental factors. She did her PhD research within the same group she now leads. After this, she did a five-year postdoc at Stanford where she set up her own line of research. This sparked her interest in how cells differentiate and how the environment affects them.
Text: Charlotte Nuijten