Logo Laboratory of Translational Immunology

Laboratory of Translational Immunology
University Medical Centre Utrecht

Lundlaan 6
3508AB Utrecht, The Netherlands

Lab Website:

www.umcutrecht.nl/en/Research/Research-programs/Infection-Immunity/Research-Groups/Group-vanWijk

Research Interests:

My group is focused on human T cell development, regulation and adaptation in chronic inflammation, addressing conceptual and mechanistic immunological questions with a strong link to the clinic. We are especially interested in what happens locally, in the (inflamed) tissues. By studying multiple tissues (including gut, skin, muscle, joint, and uterus), and diseases, from infants to the elderly, we aim to unravel general T cell concepts and disease mechanisms/targets over age. In ongoing studies we address the following research topics:

  • T cell programming and regulation in chronic inflammation
  • Tissue T cell adaptation
  • Naïve T cell development and function in health and disease
  • Resetting the T cell compartment in autoimmunity with autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

To address our research questions we utilize well-defined cohorts of patients, and combine (tissue) T cell isolation techniques with (single-cell) profiling (flow cytometry RNA-seq, TCR-seq, ChiP-seq, tissue mass cytometry) and functional assays.