Suzanne Willems

Research

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and progressive lung disease, characterized by excessive production of extracellular matrix (ECM), predominantly by stromal cells, which results in impaired gas exchange. Currently, the few available treatments only slow the progression of the disease, and no cure exists.

My PhD project focuses on the interaction of monocytes/macrophages with the altered lung microenvironment in IPF. Not only is there an increase in the amount of ECM, but there are also alterations in the composition and organization of its proteins. Together with stromal cells, the ECM forms an active microenvironment (the stromal bed) that can interact with and influence the behavior of cells. In IPF, macrophages that are recruited into the tissue from the circulation interact with this altered stromal bed and are instructed to adopt a profibrotic phenotype, thereby contributing to the progression of the disease. Using novel 3D human-derived culture models, we aim to identify factors that drive this profibrotic behavior of macrophages and uncover new therapeutic targets to treat IPF.

Keywords: ECM, IPF, Monocytes/Macrophages, Fibroblasts