Specialization
precision medicine in pediatric respiratory medicine
Focus of research
Childhood asthma is a heterogeneous inflammatory disease comprising different phenotypes and endotypes. Particularly in its severe forms, it has a large impact on the quality-of-life of patients and caregivers. My research focusses on improving treatment for children with severe asthma, by combining pharmacoepidemiological, immunological and genomic approaches.
My main projects are:
1) Identification and validation of biomarkers that may guide treatment with novel biologicals in children with severe asthma. Biologicals targeting underlying inflammatory pathways are increasingly available to treat children with severe asthma, holding the promise to enable precision medicine in this heterogeneous patient population with high unmet clinical needs. However, the current understanding of which child would benefit from which type or combination of biologicals is still limited. To move omics advances towards implementation, we recently established the PERsonalized Medicine Approach for asthma and allergy Biological SeLEction (PERMEABLE) consortium. This multidisciplinary European consortium aims to establish consensus on clinical selection criteria for young biologicals users and combine preclinical studies on treatment response with multiomics biomarker studies of young patients starting with a biological.
2) Studying severe pediatric asthma phenotypes. In the PANDA study we aim to study the clinical characteristics and molecular mechanisms underlying different severe pediatric asthma phenotypes using non-invasive approaches. Understanding why some children have a poor response to treatment, might help to identify innovative treatment approaches.
3) Investigating adolescents' patient engagement in order to connect science and society. Due to developmental processes, adolescents think, feel and act differently compared to young children and adults. Peer-led interventions might improve the treatment of children with chronic respiratory diseases. In collaboration with the dept. of Ethics, Law and Humaniora (VUmc) we investigate the experiences of our newly established Youth Advisory Council (JongerenAdviesRaad Longziekten) to adapt research and care to the specific needs of adolescents with a chronic respiratory disease.
In addition, I am also involved in various other projects on precision medicine in chronic respiratory diseases.