Jan Van den Bossche

Translational Macrophage Immunometabolism  

Jan van den Bossche

Jan Van den Bossche completed his study in Bioscience Engineering in 2006 with greatest distinction at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), specializing in Cell and Gene Biotechnology and Immunology. Throughout his career he has been fascinated by the heterogeneity and plasticity of macrophages. 

Supported by a FWO doctoral grant, he obtained his PhD in 2011 at the Myeloid Cell Immunology lab, headed by Prof. Jo Van Ginderachter at VIB, Brussels, Belgium. During this period, he identified E-cadherin as a new marker for M2 macrophages, described polyamines as crucial regulators of macrophage polarization and contributed to our current knowledge on the heterogeneity of tumor-associated macrophages and myeloid-derived suppressor cells. 

After a short stay as a guest scientist at the University of Tübingen in Germany, he joined to the group of Prof. Menno de Winther at the Academic Medical Center (AMC) at the University of Amsterdam. As a starting post-doctoral researcher, Jan Van den Bossche obtained a junior postdoc grant from Netherlands Heart Foundation (Hartstichting) to study histone acetylation as an important regulator of macrophages during atherosclerosis. 

Obtaining a VENI grant from NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) allowed him to start an independent research line, investigating the metabolic regulation of macrophage polarization and repolarization. 

At the end of 2017, Jan became principal investigator at the Department of Molecular Cell Biology and Immunology (VUmc) where his group how targeting macrophage metabolism can be applied to improve their function and disease outcome.

Contact

E-mail: j.vandenbossche@amsterdamumc.nl 

phone: +31 20 4441425

Secretary: secretariaat.mcbi@vumc.nl | phone +31 20 444 8080

linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vandenbosschejan/

twitter: https://twitter.com/immunometlab

Research

Our research aims to explain how metabolic reprogramming regulates macrophage subsets in different settings, focusing on cancer and cardiovascular disease. By unravelling key questions in macrophage immunometabolism, our overall goal is to demonstrate whether and how targeting macrophage metabolism could be used for future therapy.

Funding

We are currently funded by the Netherlands Heart Foundation (Hartstichting senior researcher grant), CCA (PhD grant and Proof-of-concept grant), ACS (PhD grant) and AG&M (collaboration on 2 talent development grants)

Metabolic rewiring in macrophage subsets
(source: Van den Bossche, O'Neill & Menon, Trends in Immunology, 2017)

Selected publications

de Goede KE, Harber KJ, Van den Bossche J. Let’s enter the wonderful world of immunometabolites. Trends in endocrinology and metabolism. 2019

Van den Bossche J, van der Windt GJW. Fatty acid oxidation in macrophages and T cells; time for reassessment? Cell Metabolism. 2018

Baardman J, Verberk SGS, Prange KHM, van Weeghel M, van der Velden S, Ryan DG, Wüst RCI, Neele AE, Speijer D, Denis SW, Witte ME, Houtkooper RH, O'neill LA, Knatko EV, Dinkova-Kostova AT, Lutgens E, de Winther MPJ, Van den Bossche JA Defective Pentose Phosphate Pathway Reduces Inflammatory Macrophage Responses during Hypercholesterolemia. Cell Reports. 2018 Nov 20

J. Van den Bossche, L. A. O'Neill, and D. Menon. Macrophage Immunometabolism; Where Are We (Going)? Trends in Immunology, 2017 Apr 7.

Van den Bossche J, Baardman J, Otto NA, van der Velden S, Neele AE, van den Berg SM, Luque-Martin R, Chen HJ, Boshuizen MC, Ahmed M, Hoeksema MA, de Vos AF, de Winther MP. Mitochondrial Dysfunction Prevents Repolarization of Inflammatory Macrophages. Cell Reports. 2016 Oct 11.  

Van den Bossche J, Bogaert P, van Hengel J, Guérin CJ, Berx G, Movahedi K, Van den Bergh R, Pereira-Fernandes A, Geuns JM, Pircher H, Dorny P, Grooten J, De Baetselier P, Van Ginderachter JA. Alternatively activated macrophages engage in homotypic and heterotypic interactions through IL-4 and polyamine-induced E-cadherin/catenin complexes. Blood. 2009 Nov 19.            

Other publications and scientific outreach

https://research.vumc.nl/en/persons/jan-van-den-bossche

Contact

E-mail: j.vandenbossche@amsterdamumc.nl 

phone: +31 20 4441425

Secretary: secretariaat.mcbi@vumc.nl | phone +31 20 444 8080

linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vandenbosschejan/

twitter: https://twitter.com/immunometlab

Group

Kyra de Goede, Sanne Verberk, Jan Van den Bossche, Elisa Meinster, Karl Harber (left to right, august 2019)

Group Members and projects

Sanne Verberk

Sanne’s PhD aims to target immunometabolic circuits in atherosclerotic macrophages to improve their function and disease outcome. This work is funded by a Netherlands Heart Foundation senior researcher grant.

Kyra de Goede

Kyra’s work is funded by a CCA (Cancer Center Amsterdam) PhD grant and studies macrophage immunometabolism in the tumor microenvironment

Karl Harber

Karl is appointed on a ACS (Amsterdam Cardiovascular Sciences) PhD grant and investigates immunometabolites in the context of atherosclerosis in collaboration with Prof. Menno de Winther and Michel van Weeghel at AMC.

Elisa Meinster

She is research technician in our group and supports distinct research lines investigating how metabolic alterations in macrophages drive their function and disease outcome

Immunometnet² immunometabolism Symposium

Previous edition:

Contact us if you want to be informed about (or involved) in future ImmunoMetNet² symposia.