Specialization
Intestinal epithelial homeostasis and disease, organoids, gut development, nutrition
Focus of research
Our research focuses on two research lines:
1. the impact of early life nutrition on gut maturation and later life gut health. Human intestine grows and matures rapidly between birth and 1 year of age. Early life nutrition is known to impact intestinal maturation and as such directly influence gut functioning during early life. Furthermore, adverse early life environment such as early life stress, antibiotic exposure, poor nutrition not only directly impact gut functioning, but also can lead to long term gut health impairments. In the current projects the impact of the early life nutrition on gut maturation, intestinal permeability is studied in human neonatal mouse models and human neonatal organoid cell cultures. By this approach we aim to 1) obtain mechanistic insight into the impact of early life nutrition on gut maturation/permeability and gut health during later life and 2) identify biomarkers for healthy gut maturation and gut health in general.
2. understanding the mechanisms of gut regeneration and how these are recapitulated during development of colorectal cancer. Making use of various epithelial damage models, transgenic mice and organoid cultures, current research focuses on Arginine biosynthesis pathway deregulation in cancer and epithelial regeneration.