Inaugural lecture Prof D. (Debbie) van Baarle: Wie de schoen past 2.0

In her inaugural lecture ‘Wie de schoen past 2.0….' , Professor Debbie van Baarle will address the importance of improving vaccination strategies for older adults and vulnerable patients, specifically using novel personalized strategies.

Vaccination is a highly effective means to prevent life-threatening infectious diseases, specifically in the growing population of older adults. With age, the capacity of the immune system, responsible for protecting us against infections, decays. This leads to an increased risk of infection with a more severe disease course, but also lower effectiveness of vaccination.

Van Baarle's research aims to understand the immune mechanisms involved in protection, specifically the T cell response. Better understanding of how these T cells recognize viruses, the functions important in fighting them, and longevity of this response will provide insight in important immune responses required for effective vaccination.

Although standard vaccination programs have been successful in protecting the population against infectious diseases. With an increased number of older adults, a better fitting strategy is necessary to protect those that need it the most. Therefore, we aim to find predictors of vaccination response to allow identification of older adults in need of alternative vaccination strategies.
The results of our studies will be used to identify individuals at risk for (certain) infectious diseases and guide vaccination strategies to enhance the immune response to viruses and thereby improve vaccinations.
Consequently, focus on specific risk/vulnerable groups will move a “one size fits all approach” towards a new era of personalized vaccination.

More information

Inaugural lecture: Prof Debbie van Baarle

• Title: Wie de schoen past 2.0
• Chair: Immunologie van vaccinaties

• Faculty: Medical Sciences

Registration no later than 2 June via the registration form .

Livestream on 9 June, see: www.rug.nl/digitale-oratie