The Systems Medicine Group has comprehensive experience in molecular epidemiology and systems medicine research, with a focus on investigating complex common diseases, which are strongly driven by the ageing process. Our research themes include cardiovascular diseases, such as thrombotic disease and heart failure, to cardiometabolic conditions like obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus, but also infectious diseases with system-wide sequelae (SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19) and cancers. The study of how the ageing process induces pathological changes is highly clinically relevant and a key priority for our group.

By using artificial intelligence (AI) methods and state-of-the-art high-throughput omics profiling techniques, we holistically integrate multi-omics data with environmental exposures, (sub)clinical parameters and advanced imaging data to discover new biomarkers and biosignatures, detect diseases at an earlier stage and predict their further progression. This is the basis for the development of tailor-made therapies, diagnostics and prognostics, and therapy monitoring tools to reflect a patient’s response to therapy. A key strength of our group is our large multidisciplinary team, spanning expertise from molecular biology, biomedicine and clinical and molecular epidemiology to bioinformatics and biostatistics/AI and disciplines critical to maintaining a large clinical research infrastructure (e.g. IT, biobanking, regulatory affairs).