Studentships

Ilka Noss

Ilka Noss was born on 22.08.1977 in Berlin, Germany, and studied Biotechnology in Braunschweig, Germany, graduating in 2004 as a Diplom-Biotechnologist. Her interests are in microbiology and environmental health. Since January 2006 she is carrying out a PhD Project at the Environmental Epidemiology department of the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, University Utrecht, Netherlands. The project aims at the exposure assessment for microbial agents in dust from home and work environments. Studies in context of the “hygiene hypothesis” suggest that frequent stimulation of the immune system by microbial- or pathogen-associated patterns (MAMPS or PAMPS) may down-regulate or even prevent atopic immune responses. MAMPS are recognition targets for receptors and activators of the innate immune system. Further investigations on the relations between MAMP exposure and atopy or respiratory disorders depend strongly on sensitive, accurate and valid methods for qualitative and quantitative exposure assessment and measurement. Especially for epidemiologic studies there is need for relatively simple and cost- and labour-effective but reliable measurement procedures, and the project deals both with improvement and optimization of existing methods for known agents (like endotoxins and b(1,3)-glucans) as well as with development of methods for less well studied agents with potentially immunoregulatory properties.

In the GABRIEL Study the focus will be on measurement of several MAMPs in bio-banked environmental samples, which are measurable on a large scale using LAL and immunoassays. In subsamples, novel technologies will be applied to fractionated dust samples using NMR and Mass Spectrometry to first provide molecular profiles of biomarkers (proteins, lipids and carbohydrates) that are characteristic of “protective dust”and second to identify novel MAMPs with immunomodulatory activity. Although the protocol is not established yet, and pilots are underway to make some choices about details on measurement methodology, it is now anticipated that samples will be taken in the home environment (carpet, air passive) and stables (air passive, farm floor dust or wipe samples). Passive air samples come close to results obtained with active sampling equipment, considered the gold standard. A small validation study has been done over a prolonged time period to evaluate variability over time for both active and passive methods and calibrate the passive sampling approach. The passive sampling approach makes use of cardboard folders, which can be folded open, after which wipes become exposed to the air. Passive, floor dust and personal air samples will be processed for the conventional microbial agents content such as endotoxin (LAL), glucans (EIA), Heat Shock Proteins (EIA) and markers like Extracellular Poly Saccharides (EIA).

Henk Koning

Henk Koning is a Medical Biotechnologist who graduated from Wageningen University, the Netherlands, in November 2006. During his study, he investigated protein interactions in the costimulatory lymphocyte activation pathway within a EU funded project at the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research in Vienna, Austria. From 1 March 2007 onwards, he will work as a PhD student at the GABRIEL studentship on PCDH1.

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