Dr. A.E.G. El Ghalbzouri

Abdelouahab El Ghalbzouri (Abdoel) studied Biotechnology and Biochemistry (BSc) in Etten-Leur, the Netherlands and after receiving a Leonardo Da Vinci Grant he moved to Paris (France) and studied Molecular and Cellular Biology (MSc) at the Medical University Paris VI, where he was awarded with the French Government Grant “Bourses d'excellence Eiffel”. In 2000, he started his PhD at the Department of Dermatology of the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). After his PhD in 2004 he continued his work as a post-doc on diseased human skin models. Currently he is leading the “disease skin model” group as.

Our research group works in various areas and utilizes skin models as a tool to study different aspects, including skin cancer, skin aging, toxicity, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, wound healing/infection, and skin homeostasis. In April 2008, our group was awarded the "Alternatives to Animal Use" Award for developing in vitro skin models that mimic squamous cell carcinoma. In July 2009, we received the Dutch Award for the best ZonMW project (Pearle project): "Development of validated organotypic in vitro models leading to improved therapy of skin cancer." In 2019, we were honored with the LUMC Translational Research Prize in recognition of our work.

Additionally, we are conducting research on the role of different fibroblast subtypes, such as papillary, reticular, and cancer-associated fibroblasts, in various forms of cancer. We are currently testing different treatment strategies in 3D tumor models. These models allow us to study the complex interactions between different cell types in the tumor microenvironment more accurately.