My research focuses on translational intensive care medicine, with sepsis-associated organ failure as the focus, in particular acute kidney injury. The aim is to develop drugs and biomarkers for organ failure, for which no targeted treatment yet exists. The work follows the principle of 'bench to bedside and back': clinical questions are studied in the laboratory and findings return to the patient. For example, we identified a microRNA in septic mice that we then confirmed in kidney tissue from ICU patients, and subsequently validated as a plasma marker in emergency department and ICU patients. I am professor of Translational Intensive Care Medicine and anaesthesiologist-intensivist at the UMCG, and a member of the NVIC Committee for Science and Innovation.
