Dr. Anje te Velde Academic Medical Center, The Netherlands

Anje te Velde is principle investigator at the Tytgat Institute for Liver and Intestinal Research. She studied medical biology at the Free University in Amsterdam and obtained her PhD on a thesis entitled ‘Human monocytes in the cytokine network’ at the University of Amsterdam and the Netherlands Cancer Institute in... read more1990. In 1991, she started her work at the Academic Medical Center (AMC) where she was one of the initiators of the development of the bioartificial liver (BAL). In 1996 she switched her research interest to the field of inflammatory bowel diseases. Te Velde investigates immunological aspects of inflammatory bowel diseases using experimental models and human material. The understanding of the pathophysiologic mechanisms involves research of genetic alterations, environmental factors and a dysregulated mucosal immune response to the gut microbiota. Together with our collaborators we study the effect of functional foods, modulated T cells, small molecules and effective peptides, the role of microRNAs and fibroblast-like cells in experimental colitis models and IBD patients. Recently, we implemented mouse colonoscopy which allows longer follow-up of diseased animals without need to sacrifice them. Te Velde is a member of the scientific core group of the Immunowell foundation (www.immunowell.com) aiming to determine the status of a healthy human immune system.