Laboratory Research

Sepsis – a severe form of infection – is one of the major causes of morbidity, multiple organ failure and mortality in ICU patients. The individual clinical outcome may be associated with favourable or unfavourable factors and these may be linked to either the patient or the pathogen.

We are conducting several projects that are related to the roles of the patient or pathogen. One of the main objectives of our work is to win insights into the pathogenesis of multiple organ failure, with a special emphasis on the study of mitochondrial dysfunction in various models of infection and in patient samples.

Our laboratory also focuses on developing innovative strategies to combat the increasing threat of antibiotic resistance. Special emphasis is put on alternatives to antibiotics, such as bacteriophages. Bacteriophages are natural viruses that kill bacteria at the end of their life cycle. They were mostly used before the advent of antibiotics and are being rediscovered and reconsidered as potential solutions to the problems of multi-drug resistance in bacteria.