On September 27, the 4^th Annual Scientific Meeting of the strategic program Infection & Immunity took place at Boerderij Mereveld in Utrecht. For many of us, it was the first larger face-to-face scientific meeting in more than 18 months. As a result, the meeting created a lot of buzz in advance, which paid out in a large crowd of 130 colleagues that registered for the meeting.

From Lab to Drug

The ASM was hosted again by Jonas Kuiper (Ophthalmology, CTI). The meeting started with a mini-symposium titled “From Lab to Drug”. In this symposium, several – not so often discussed - aspects of drug research and development were presented by Trudy Straetemans (translation of innovative drugs into clinical practice, using TEG cell therapy against malignancies as an example). This was followed by Jeanette Leusen who discussed the path from discovering a new drug candidate to starting a spin-off company. Finally, Peter Hermans (U-Trialist for I&I) presented the Utrecht Trial Innovation Alliance Initiative (U-TRIAL), an in-house organization aimed at developing and implementing an innovative clinical trials portfolio in the UMC Utrecht with global scientific as well as healthcare impact.

Trudy Straetemans (l), Jeanette Leusen (m) and Peter Hermans (r)

I&I Boost Grants

After a short update on our Strategic Program by Marc Bonten, the recipients of the I&I Boost Grant 2020 provided an update on their awarded collaborative projects:

• Helen von Richthofen (also on behalf of Marcel de Zoete): Identification of novel inhibitory receptors that detect and mediate tolerance to commensal microbes in host epithelium
• Jorg van Loosdregt (also on behalf of Robert Jan Lebbink): M6A RNA methylation promotes SARS-CoV-2 infection
• Pieter Jan Haas (also on behalf of Coco de Koning): Neutrophil recovery and CD4+ T cell function in fungal infections after HTC: finding potential predictors for antifungal drug use

Helen von Richthofen (l), Jorg van Loosdregt (m) and Pieter Jan Haas (r)

Erik Hack Publication Award 2021

The Strategic Program I&I held its 4^th competition and award ceremony for the best I&I publication as first author by our PhD candidates. The winner of the so-called “Erik Hack Publication Award”, after Prof. Erik Hack who was former chair of strategic program I&I and who retired from UMC Utrecht end of 2018, receives 750 euro free to spend. This year, as a consequence of the large number of high-quality competition applicants, the reviewing committee decided to nominate four (instead of the usual three) candidates for the award competition: Lisanne Lutter, Mui Pham, Eelco Brand and Matevž Rumpret.

After live audience voting, the award was won by Eelco Brand, who works in at the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (prof. Bas Oldenburg) and the Center for Translational Immunology (prof. Femke van Wijk) for his recent manuscript titled “Healthy Cotwins Share Gut Microbiome Signatures With Their Inflammatory Bowel Disease Twins and Unrelated Patients.” Gastroenterology 2021;160(6):1970-1985. In this article, Eelco Brand and his co-authors describe the results of the TWIN study, in which they investigated the effects of environmental factors, diet, changes in the immune system, the intestinal flora, the function of the intestinal mucosa, metabolites and genetic factors on (the development of) inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). By investigating twins, they obtained detailed insights in the effects of genetics and environment on the development of IBD. They concluded that the gut microbiome of healthy cotwins from IBD-discordant twin pairs displays IBD-like signatures. These IBD-like microbiome signatures might precede the onset of IBD. However, longitudinal follow-up studies are needed to infer a causal relationship.

Eelco Brand

Keynote lectures on COVID-19

The scientific part of the meeting concluded with two keynote lectures on recent developments COVID-19-related research. First, UMC Utrecht intensivist Lennie Derde presented recent results of the REMAP-CAP study. This study investigates, using an innovative clinical trial design, if and which existing drugs are useful in the treatment of severe COVID-19. A recent overview on the outcomes of REMAP-CAP can be found here.

The second keynote lecture was delivered by virologist Marion Koopmans from Erasmus MC. She elaborated on the virological research at her laboratory on SARS-CoV-2 variants and the impact these may have in the near future. Her take home message: the pandemic is not over until we achieve a global vaccination coverage, including Africa and the Far East.

Lennie Derde (l) and Marion Koopmans (r)

Pubquiz

After the scientific part of the meeting, it was time to unwind and relax with drinks, bites, good conversation and a pubquiz. After 8 rounds of questions, the team (with the iconic name "Strawberry Fields") consisting of Linde Meyaard, Jeanette Leusen, Bas Vastert, Jorg van Loosdregt, Margje Janssen, Paul Geurts and Femke van Wijk won the quiz! Next to eternal fame, the winners received a nice beer box from a craft brewery located in the Achterhoek (the most eastern part of the Netherlands).

The winning team