DB

Debby Bogaert

Royal Hospital for Sick Children, University of Edinburgh, University Medical Center Utrecht, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus MC

Research areas: Medicine · Epidemiology · Pneumonia and Respiratory Infections · Gut microbiota and health · Microbial infections and disease research

ORCID iD 0000-0003-2651-7000
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About

Professor Bogaert is a Pediatric Infectious Diseases specialist, working at the Centre for Inflammation Research, Institute for Regeneration and Repair, of the University of Edinburgh. She is also affiliated with the Department of Pediatric Immunology of the UMC Utrecht, The Netherlands.
She has a long track record in ecological studies of the early life microbiome. Her team has a particular interest in risk factors for aberrant early life microbiome development, such as antibiotic use and C-section deliveries, and how these shape especially the gut and respiratory microbiome during a critical phase of life. They try to understand how microbiota signatures explain susceptibility to early life infections, and long-term sequela. Furthermore, she participates in and facilitates multiple microbiological and immunological research projects linked to clinical studies in Europe and Africa, especially regarding the respiratory microbiome. She also leads wet-lab work on understanding the protective mechanisms of commensal bacteria in the gut and respiratory tract
Her team has a fully translational approach, whereby scientific understanding should result in improvement of diagnostics, treatment and preventive strategies.
She worked from 2006 to 2008 as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard School of Public Health & Boston Children’s Hospital, where she executed biomechanistic studies on susceptibility of infants to pneumococcal colonisation and infection, with specific emphasis on host-immunity and mucosal vaccines.
She obtained her PhD degree cum laude from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands for her studies on pathogenesis of pneumococcal infections, focusing on (molecular) epidemiology of bacterial colonisation of the upper respiratory tract. As part of this work, she was among the first to identify the relevance of microbial interactions in the respiratory for pathogenesis and prevention of respiratory infections.

Employment

Education

Projects & Funding

  • Oral bacterial lysate to prevent persistent wheeze in infants after severe bronchitis (BLIPA) NIHR BioResource
    2021 - Present
  • Healthy Lives - Malawi : Intergenerational Cohort of Chronic Conditions Wellcome Trust
    2019 - 2025
  • host-microbiome interactions: identification of ecological drivers that are key to respiratory problems in pre-term born children Chief Scientist Office
    2019 - 2024
  • Nasal Cathelicidin Expression in Protection Against RSV CSO
    2019 - 2022
  • Respiratory health risks from intensive livestock production, risk estimation and prevention ZonMw
    2019 - 2024
  • Mucosal Pathogen Research Unit (MPRU) NIHR BioResource
    2018 - 2022
  • RESPIRE-1 NIHR BioResource
    2018 - 2022
  • The antiviral potential of cathelicidin against RSV infections in infants Action Medical Research
    2018 - 2022
  • Respiratory syncytial virus consortium in Europe (RESCEU) HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme
    2017 - 2022
  • Host-microbiome interactions: the key to respiratory health? Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
    2015 - 2019
  • Consequences of early-life antibiotic exposure on AMR gene selection: what regimen causes least harm? ZonMw
    2014 - 2018
  • Dynamics of nasopharyngeal microbial flora; the key to respiratory and invasive disease? ZonMw
    2010 - 2014
  • Nasopharyngeal microbial communities and the effects of vaccination. Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
    2009 - 2012

Publications (208)