DC 15 -Translational lipid immunometabolism: from molecular pathways to human validation

• Objectives:

1. Integrate multi-omics datasets (RNA-seq, lipidomics, metabolomics) to identify druggable metabolic checkpoints linking lipid metabolism and immune regulation.
2. Validate metabolic signatures using in vitro and ex vivo models of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases;
3. Translate mechanistic findings into human systems through biomarker and functional assays in collaboration with CHDR;
4. Assess the clinical translatability of immunometabolic targets using human volunteer challenge and biomarker studies.

• Brief project description

Immune cell function is tightly regulated by metabolic pathways that integrate environmental cues with immune activation and tolerance. While lipid immunometabolism has revealed key molecular mechanisms controlling immune responses, the translation of these findings into human-relevant systems remains a major challenge.

This project focuses on bridging mechanistic lipid immunometabolism with human validation. By integrating multi-omics approaches to identify druggable metabolic checkpoints and validating these pathways in human immune cells and clinical biomarker studies, the project aims to advance the translation of immunometabolic discoveries from bench to bedside, supporting the development of clinically relevant strategies to modulate immune function in inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

• Planned secondments:

Jan van den Bossche  lab (AUMC, Netherlands)
• Application of Met-Flow and imaging-based immunometabolic profiling in primary immune cells to study identified targets.

Centre for Human Drug Research (CHDR) (Leiden, Netherlands)
• Training on spatial metabolomics and lipidomics techniques to map metabolic landscapes across organs.
• Training in early-phase translational pharmacology, biomarker development, and human metabolic challenge models.
• Participation in clinical sample analysis to evaluate immunometabolic readouts from human volunteers.
• Application of lipid metabolism and immune profiling assays developed at UMCM to CHDR clinical datasets.