Mariet Feltkamp | “We want to stay ahead of new infections that threaten safe transfusion and transplantation"
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What does your professorship involve?
“I am endowed professor of Medical Microbiology with a focus on preventing the transmission of viral infections through blood transfusion and organ transplantation. My chair spans two areas and two institutions: LUMC and Sanquin Blood Supply. In practice, this often involves selecting and testing donors for certain viruses. It also includes what I call increasing the resilience of the recipient.”
What is the main message of your inaugural lecture?
“There are several. In donor screening, it is important that it matches the ‘infection landscape’. These are the infections that may be present in a particular region. That landscape is constantly changing. Some infections are advancing, for example due to climate change, such as mosquito-borne dengue and West Nile fever. Others appear to be gradually becoming less relevant, for example due to successful treatment and declining numbers, such as hepatitis C. We need to anticipate these trends to keep blood and organ safety secure and to ensure that screening programmes remain efficient.”
“We are also working on broadening knowledge that is still lacking in some areas. These so-called ‘knowledge gaps’ can hinder appropriate donor screening. To broaden this knowledge, we contribute to research on the presence of certain new infections in the Netherlands. In addition, we want to better understand why some organ donors pose a higher risk of virus transmission than others, even though they are all infected with the same virus. Think of the BK virus, which causes inflammation in transplanted kidneys.”
“The new and promising blood marker TTV (which is itself a virus) also deserves a place in transplantation care. TTV does not cause symptoms, but essentially ‘rides along’ with the immunity of its host. You can measure this virus with a simple PCR test. Measuring TTV could help set transplant patients for their immunosuppressive medication. This may reduce their risk of complications, such as rejection and infections.”
What are some key research areas you and your team are working on?
“At LUMC, I mainly study the BK virus and TTV. At Sanquin the focus is on emerging mosquito-borne infections and how we should anticipate them. I also study parvovirus. This can cause severe anaemia, especially in unborn babies. These babies need a transfusion while still in the womb. In the Netherlands this is done at LUMC, which is the national centre of expertise for this. In 2024 there was a large parvovirus outbreak, and we are now trying to determine its cause.”
What is something from the past years that really stayed with you?
“Without a doubt the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a remarkable time for us as virologists. Even though the workload was enormous, it also gave a lot of energy. Another thing that stayed with me was the discovery of a virus, the TS polyomavirus. In this case, the facial hair of a heart transplant patient had turned into hard bristles. We managed to find the cause. After that, we could start the right treatment, and the bristles disappeared completely.”
“The fact that a Nobel Prize winner had highlighted this mysterious clinical picture in his Nobel lecture the year before made it all the more special. It was also remarkable that with this research we successfully completed the ‘bedside to bench, and back again’ trajectory (from clinical presentation, through diagnosis, to diagnostic testing and effective treatment); a research concept that many project proposals focus on, but that rarely is done in practice.”
What impact might patients and society notice from your work?
“Difficult question. First, I aim to ensure that transfusions remain safe, despite the emergence of new blood-borne infections. And further, that organ transplant patients experience fewer complications from the immunosuppressive drugs they must take, through the introduction of TTV measurements. If this also makes transplantation care a bit more cost-effective, that would be a welcome bonus.”
If we may dream, where do you hope the field will be in 10 to 15 years?
“I expect that with the use of both artificial intelligence (AI) and good old common sense, we will be better able to identify new infections that threaten safe transfusion and transplantation. I am thinking especially of mosquito-borne infections, such as dengue and West Nile fever, which by then will likely occur more frequently in the Netherlands due to climate change. Predicting where they appear can be done much better than we do now, so that additional donor screening can be deployed precisely where it is needed.”
“I also hope that we will have reduced polyomavirus infections, particularly BK virus in kidney transplant patients. And that we will be able to better set organ transplant patients for their immunosuppressive medication, reducing complications, rejection and long-lasting infections.”