Infection & Immunity

The Strategic Program Infection & Immunity is a leading platform in the field of inflammatory and infectious diseases and immune-mediated therapy. We continuously focus on developing and improving the treatment of patients with difficult-to-manage infections, immune diseases or cancer.

Societal impact 

Diseases due to failure of the immune system or infections represent a major human and societal burden, linked with high mortality, disability, lifelong treatments, and considerable costs. According to recent WHO estimates, three of the ten leading global causes of death are I&I-related: lower respiratory infection (2.6 M/yr), neonatal infections (2 M/yr) and diarrheal diseases (1.5 M/yr). In addition, with an increasing global population and an aging society, the incidence of arthritis and other immune-mediated inflammatory diseases are increasing worldwide, causing significant disability and costs for society. Moreover, antimicrobial resistance poses a major public health threat, causing significant mortality (up to 5 M/yr). Finally, tumor immunology research has resulted in new therapeutics such as immunotherapy, saving hundreds of thousands lives each year.

News

Emmy Wesdorp (bioinformatician Princess Maxima Centre)

Faster fungal diagnosis

11 April 2025 Read more

Clinical trial on post-COVID launched

8 April 2025

Improving antibiotic use for urinary tract infections in frail older adults

3 April 2025

Appropriate use of antibiotics in children with fever: how an interactive booklet may help

10 March 2025

Characterization of the response to therapy in multiple myeloma

27 February 2025

Our themes

The strategic program Infection & Immunity (I&I) concentrates its efforts mostly on hard-to-manage infections, (auto-)inflammatory disorders, and tumor immunology in order to answer the unmet medical requirements of diseases associated to infection and failing immunity.

Our research combines fundamental science with clinic applications through a strong translational approach. We focus on four research themes:

Featured video: The role of therapeutic antibodies in the fight against cancer

Prof. Jeanette Leusen, PhD (Center for Translational Immunology, UMC Utrecht) and Debby Vermeer, PhD (DVK Biotech, Oisterwijk) are the co-leads of the biologics workstream within Oncode Accelerator and are collaborating on the development of therapeutic antibodies. In this interview, they delve into the world of biologics and explore how the biologics workstream at Oncode Accelerator is innovating cancer therapy, both from an academic and industrial perspective.

Jeanette Leusen has a profound academic background. She is a full professor antibody therapy, became head of the immunotherapy group at UMC Utrecht in 2006, and founded the UMAB facility in 2012. Watch this video to get to know how Jeanette and Debby delve into the world of biologics, learn how they innovate cancer therapy, and explore how you can work with them.

Upcoming events

Academy Building

18-06-2025 from 16:15 to 21:34

Prinses Máxima Centrum

19-09-2025 from 08:30 to 17:30
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Research groups

Our Strategic Program hosts over 500 researchers dedicated to Infection & Immunity research. They work together in research groups to accelerate the results of their projects.

Discover our research groups

PhD & MSc programs

Our students participate largely in MSc and PhD programs of Infection & immunity and Epidemiology by Utrecht University:

Internships

Interested in doing an internship with us? Please contact our research groups directly.

People behind the program

Marc Bonten

Full Professor

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Linde Meyaard

Full Professor

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Annelies Verbon

Full Professor

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Jovanka Bestebroer

Program manager

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Paul Geurts

Science communication advisor

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