Prof. Dr. Tom H. M. Ottenhoff, MD, PhD

My mission is to dissect immunological, host-genetic and underlying cellular/molecular mechanisms of protective and pathologic immunity to mycobacterial (and other) infections, in order to design more effective intervention strategies, including novel vaccination strategies, innovative biomarkers and diagnostics, and anti-microbial treatments.

Our team´s TB research is fundamental, preclinical, translational as well as clinical in nature. We aim to develop better vaccines, diagnostic, immunologic, transcriptomic and metabolic “biomarker signatures”. This work has led to a number of first-in-man clinical studies with new, molecularly defined synthetic TB vaccines. Systems biology, chemical genetics, transcriptomics, metabolomics and immunomics approaches are used to identify key cellular signalling pathways (including for HDT), in host defense to intracellular pathogens. Correlates of protection and correlates of risk are being identified. Moreover, there is an interest in co-infections (e.g. HIV) and (non-communicable) co-morbidities including type-2 diabetes, a major TB-risk factor. Technologies developed in our TB program enabled identification of biomarkers of Ebola-vaccine induced human responses. Extensive collaborative networks have been established with TB endemic areas.