Debby Bogaert

Background

About Debby Bogaert

Dr. Bogaert is a physician scientist who leads two translation research groups In Edinburgh, UK, and Utrecht, NL, working on pathogenesis, treatment and prevention of respiratory and childhood infections, studied from an ecological perspective. Since 2009 she has initiated several ecological studies of the respiratory microbiome in relation to pathogenesis of respiratory infections. She received several grants including a Veni and Vidi grant (NWO), a Top grant (ZonMW) and a Scottish Senior clinical fellowship for her work. Together with multiple collaborators she executed molecular epidemiological studies to identify drivers and ecological mechanisms of respiratory infections, and long term respiratory health. Moreover, she aims to study the role of the human microbiome in early life, with a specific focus on environmental effects like air pollution, and antibiotic use on damage to the microbial ecosystem and its function. Since January 2016 she is also active within the UK, where she joined the Center for Inflammation Research of the University of Edinburgh. Her aims are to translate her line of science to LMICs to try and understand global health problems such as childhood morbidity and mortality through infections. Moreover, she aims to support integrative research on pathogenesis of acute and chronic infections and inflammatory diseases such as asthma and cystic fibrosis. From 2006-2008 she worked as a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard School of Public Health and Children's Hospital (Prof. M. Lipsitch and Prof. R. Malley) studying the susceptibility of infants to pneumococcal colonization and infection in vitro and in animal models. She obtained her PhD degree cum Laude in 2004 from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam on the subject "host-pathogen interaction during S. pneumoniae colonization and infection"​. In addition, she was trained as a Pediatrician at the Sophia Children’s Hospital in Rotterdam, obtaining her license in 2006.