Team

Group leaders

Prof. Alexandra (Sasha) Zhernakova

Professor of Human Genome and Exposome

Sasha's research interest is in understanding how microbiome mediates the development of diseases. Her research is focused on linking human genome, microbiome (including virome!) and exposome to individuals' health. She is also exploring the development of microbiome and virome in babies and its effect on health in children.

Prof. Rinse Weersma

Professor of Gastroenterology

Rinse leads the IBD group and dept. of gastroenterology at UMCG. His primary research interest is in role of microbiome in development, prevention, and treatment of IBD.

Prof. Jingyuan Yang-Fu

Professor of Systems Medicine

My research interests lie in systems genetics. I believe that big data will advance medical development at an unprecedented speed, and I harness this potential in my multidisciplinary research on systems genetics. I perform integration analyses that combine human genome, gut microbiome, and multidimensional omics data. This leads to statistical models and networks, and, eventually, to causal inference from genotype to phenotype in complex traits and diseases.

Dr. H.J.M. (Hermie) Harmsen

Associate prof., Microbiology

Hermie studies microbiome in health and disease using experimental models.

Dr. Sebo Withoff

Associate Prof., Molecular Biology

My main research interest is how an individual’s genetic make-up contributes to immune homeostasis in healthy individuals versus in autoimmune disease susceptibility. I am currently focusing on answering how does the genetic background affect an individual’s immune cell function and how do SNPs in gene regulatory regions affect the expression of genes associated with autoimmune diseases.

Dr. D.P.Y. (Debby) Koonen

Assistant Professor

We perform mechanistic studies in conventional and germ-free mice to identify and unravel novel microbiota-related mechanisms as drivers of cardio-metabolic diseases and aging.