Profile photo Louis Bont

Louis Bont

Full Professor

Strategic program(s):

Biography

Louis Bont is a Paediatrician Infectiologist at the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital in the University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands. He leads the Utrecht RSV Research Group. He is the coordinator of the Interest Group on Respiratory Infections of the European Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID) Research Committee. Dr. Bont is the founder and chairman of ReSViNET, an international RSV Research consortium. He has a strong interest in education of young talented researchers and founded the successful Training of Upcoming Leaders in Pediatric Science (TULIPS) career training program in the Netherlands. Dr. Bont served as advisor of the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Center of Disease Control (ECDC) and the Europarliament.

Louis Bont did his medical training at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam (1989-1996). He performed his PhD under the supervision of professor Jan Kimpen and professor Cobi Heijnen at the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital (1997-2000). He was a post-doc at the Garofalo lab in Galveston, Texas (2000-2001). After returning to Utrecht, he followed the pediatric residency program followed by a pediatric infectious diseases and immunology fellowship. He have led the RSV Research Group since 2003 and became full professor in 2015.

The vision of his research is to combine clinical and basic research to decrease the global burden of RSV infection. The mission of his research group is to improve knowledge of RSV epidemiology, and to develop safe and effective therapeutic and preventive interventions.

In his work collaborate with patients is of highest importance. His work is supported by the RSV Patient Advisory Board (PAB) since 2012. The PAB has reviewed every grant application by the RSV Research Group. PAB members have been interviewed for newspapers and national television on RSV-related subjects.

Louis Bont actively participates as a teacher in the SUMMA program. In addition, he founded the TULIPS program in 2008 to train colleagues and young clinician-scientists.

Since April 1st 2021, Louis has been given a new position as medical scientific division manager of the Children's Division of the Wilhelmina Children's Hospital in Utrecht.

Research groups

Utrecht RSV research group

Research aim

We have the vision to combine clinical and basic research to decrease the global burden of RSV infection. Our mission is to improve knowledge of RSV epidemiology, to develop safe and effective interventions and to strive for global health equity.
Go to group

Pediatric immunology team

Research aim

The pediatric immunology team focuses on the under-explored research field of immune response modification for the prevention of immune-driven diseases. The goal of our research is to develop interventions that can prevent disease manifestations.
Go to group

Recent publications

Burden of Respiratory Syncytial Virus–Associated Acute Respiratory Infections During Pregnancy Sebastien Kenmoe, Helen Y. Chu, Fatimah S. Dawood, Jennifer Milucky, Wanitchaya Kittikraisak, Hamish Matthewson, Durga Kulkarni, Piyarat Suntarattiwong, Collrane Frivold, Sarita Mohanty, Fiona Havers, You Li, Harish Nair, Jeroen Aerssens, Benoit Callendret, Gabriela Ispas, Bahar Ahani, Jessica Atwell, Elizabeth Begier, Monica Turiga, Tin Tin Htar, Mathieu Bangert, Rolf Kramer, Charlotte Vernhes, Philippe Beutels, Louis Bont, Harry Campbell, Harish Nair, You Li, Sebastien Kenmoe, Richard Osei-Yeboah, Xin Wang, Rachel Cohen, Gael Dos Santos, Philip Joosten, Theo Last, Veena Kumar, Nuria Machin, Hanna Nohynek, Peter Openshaw, John Paget, Andrew Pollard, Anne Teirlinck, Arantxa Urchueguía-Fornes, Ainara Mira-Iglesias, Alejandro Orrico-Sánchez, Javier Díez-Domingo, Johannesen Caroline Klint, Mark Miller, Rafael Mikolajczyk,
Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2024, vol. 229, p.S51-S60
Targeted metagenomics reveals association between severity and pathogen co-detection in infants with respiratory syncytial virus Gu-Lung Lin, Simon B Drysdale, Matthew D Snape, Daniel O'Connor, Anthony Brown, George MacIntyre-Cockett, Esther Mellado-Gomez, Mariateresa de Cesare, M Azim Ansari, David Bonsall, James E Bray, Keith A Jolley, Rory Bowden, Jeroen Aerssens, Louis Bont, Peter J M Openshaw, Federico Martinon-Torres, Harish Nair, Tanya Golubchik, Andrew J Pollard,
Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15
Personalized Infant Risk Prediction for Severe Respiratory Syncytial Virus Lower Respiratory Tract Infection Requiring Intensive Care Unit Admission Brittney M Snyder, Niek B Achten, Tebeb Gebretsadik, Pingsheng Wu, Edward F Mitchel, Gabriel Escobar, Louis J Bont, Tina V Hartert
Open Forum Infectious Diseases, 2024, vol. 11
Respiratory Syncytial Virus European Laboratory Network 2022 Survey Lance D. Presser, Willem M.R. van den Akker, Adam Meijer, Jeroen Aerssens, Gabriela Ispas, Bahar Ahani, Jessica Atwell, Elizabeth Begier, Tin Htar, Mathieu Bangert, Rolf Kramer, Charlotte Vernhes, Philippe Beutels, Louis Bont, Harry Campbell, Harish Nair, You Li, Richard Osei-Yeboah, Xin Wang, Rachel Cohen, Gael Dos Santos, Theo Last, Veena Kumar, Hanna Nohynek, Peter Openshaw, John Paget, Andrew Pollard, Anne Teirlinck, Adam Meijer, Algirdas Griskevicius, Anna Sara Carnahan, Catherine Moore, Cyril Barbezange, Edita Staronová, Gatis Pakarna, Graziella Zahra, Helena Jirincova, Inmaculada Casas, Iván Sanz, Janine Reiche, Katarina Prosenc Trilar, Lidia Brydak, Maja Ilic, Martine Valette, Mihaela Lazar, Mónika Rózsa, Monika Redlberger-Fritz, Neli Korsun, Niina Ikonen, Ramona Trebbien,
Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2024, vol. 229, p.S34-S39
Global disease burden of and risk factors for acute lower respiratory infections caused by respiratory syncytial virus in preterm infants and young children in 2019 Xin Wang, You Li, Ting Shi, Louis J Bont, Helen Y Chu, Heather J Zar, Bhanu Wahi-Singh, Yiming Ma, Bingbing Cong, Emma Sharland, Richard D Riley, Jikui Deng, Josep Figueras-Aloy, Terho Heikkinen, Marcus H Jones, Johannes G Liese, Joško Markić, Asuncion Mejias, Marta C Nunes, Bernhard Resch, Ashish Satav, Kee Thai Yeo, Eric A F Simões, Harish Nair,
Lancet (London, England), 2024, vol. 403, p.1241-1253
Respiratory syncytial virus Louis Bont, Manuel Krone, Lauriane Harrington, Harish Nair, Terry Nolan, Hitoshi Oshitani, David Salisbury
Journal of Global Health, 2024, vol. 14

Fellowships & Awards

2010: Towards therapeutic intervention of RSV bronchiolitis in infants

External positions

Chair and expert board member - Expertise RSV - ReSViNET – Respiratory Syncytial Virus Foundation

Global virtual advisory board - consulting - Janssen

Member Advisory Board - Clinical & Research Expertise - GlaxoSmithKline