The Researchers

In the COPACETIC consortium I am the coordinator of this project. I communicate with the European Union FP7 legal/scientific oficers on behalf of the COPACETIC researchers on results and scientific / legal aspects of the study. Coordinators also organise the between-researcher discussions via regular meetings to facilitate a smooth flow of activities and exchange of data. Coordinators interact with external scientific parties and take care of the flow of information to the scientific world.

In a way, COPD is a peculiar disease: it should not exist at all or be very seldom. Without the tobacco this disease should be small print in pulmonary textbooks in stead of being one the leading causes of death in the near future. The disease... View profile

As head of the Department of Respiratory Medicine at the UMC Utrecht I am responsible for the clinical, educational and scientific activities of this department. My major field of interest is obstructive airway diseases including asthma, COPD, cystic fibrosis and lymphangioleiomyomatosis. Being also involved in the COPD studies related to the Nelson study, which delivers the discovery database for COPACETIC, my main interest within the COPACETIC research consortium is an extension of this research focusing on the relationship of results from the GWA and findings from lung function measurements and low-dose inspiratory and expiratory CT-scans.

My main object for the COPACETIC is: combining knowledge on genes and environment will e... View profile

I am a professor in Pulmonology and have always tried to combine clinical work with research, teaching and management of our research group.

I like to work with multidisciplinary teams of researchers, since it is a challenge to integrate the knowledge that I can learn form all these groups. It brings about more new ideas when I talk with individuals from different background and this brings my research on a higher level.

I participate in COPACETIC because I strongly believe in the genetic background of COPD and hope we can learn about the heterogeneity of the disease.

Marike Boezen is an expert on development and disease progression of respiratory disease, with an emphasis on genetic susceptibility and gene-environment interactions. Her research is embedded in the Groningen Research Institute of Asthma and COPD (GRIAC, of which she is program leader). She has an internationally established track record in respiratory epidemiology and conduct of large population based cohort studies on respiratory disease. She has master degrees in human movement sciences (Groningen) and in epidemiology (Amsterdam), and was additionally trained in molecular and genetic epidemiology at the department of molecular genetics of the Channing Lab, Harvard Medical School, USA, where she worked as an associate epidemiologist. ... View profile

Since 2007, Prof. Cisca Wijmenga combines leading a large research group working on the genetics of complex disorders with a position as head of the Department of Genetics, UMC Groningen, which has some 200 staff. She studied Biology at the University of Groningen and gained her Ph.D. cum laude in 1993 at Leiden University for work on a Mendelian disorder. She then did two years’ postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health, USA, on a chromosomal disorder involved in leukemia. She played a critical role in creating a “knock in” mouse model, which was a new form of genetic manipulation. In 1995 she moved to UMC Utrecht and was one of the first to search for genetic factors determining more complex disorders. She adop... View profile

Jørgen Vestbo was born in January 1959 and graduated from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Copenhagen in 1984. He has trained in hospitals in Copenhagen and is a specialist in Internal Medicine and Respiratory Medicine. JV has an interest in both epidemiology of COPD and clinical research in COPD. He defended his doctoral thesis on the predictive value of lung function and respiratory symptoms in COPD at the University of Copenhagen in 1996. He is still active in epidemiological research in the Copenhagen City Heart Study where he and his respiratory colleagues work with Prof Nordestgaard and his group on genetic epidemiology in COPD. JV is also interested in clinical research and interventional research and has been ... View profile

Børge G. Nordestgaard, MD, DMSc is Chief Physician in Clinical Biochemistry at Copenhagen University Hospital and Professor in Genetic Epidemiology at University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He was born in 1957.

In 1985 he graduated as a medical doctor from University of Copenhagen. Postgraduate scientific education included 2 years at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and 2 years at St. Thomas's Hospital in London, UK. In 1990 he was awarded Doctor of Medical Sciences by University of Copenhagen and in 1996 Specialist in Clinical Biochemistry by the Danish Board of Health. Clinical training included hyperlipidemia, surgical gastroenterology, cardiology, and clinical biochemistry.

He is chairing the Copenhagen General... View profile

I am Head of Division of Pulmonary Diseases, Department of Medicine at Jagiellonian University Medical College in Krakow, Poland. As a Professor of Medicine I try to divide my time between clinical work and multiple international scientific and research activities. I act especially in the field of allergic and pulmonary diseases, with special interest in prostanoids and pathogenesis of aspirin-induced asthma; aspirin hypersensitivity diagnostic procedures (standardization of oral, bronchial and nasal challenge procedures) and also in the treatment of severe and difficult asthma. I am also interested in biochemical, molecular and clinical researches on venous thromboembolic disease, with particular emphasis on hereditary thrombophilia. ... View profile

Place of work: Pulmonary Diseases Department, Jagiellonian University Krakow ,Poland

Main interest fields: Sleep apnoea, COPD, NIMV

Specialties: Internal Diseases (completed 3 years of 5)

I work in Pulmonary Department of the Jagiellonian University School of Medicine. I am a specialist in pulmonary medicine, however, I also do some research work. My previous research interests focused on aspirin-induced asthma (I have established COX-2 inhibitors to be safe in AIA patients), influence of COX-2 inhibitors on vasoactive prostanoids as well as safety of LABA in asthma patients. Recently I've been involved in studies on COPD (i.e. BOLD study). I'm really excited to be involved in COPACETIC, hoping this project will help us better understand COPD pathogenesis.

Monika Eichinger, MD, graduated 1992 at the University of Heidelberg and completed her clinical training as specialist for Internal Medicine and Pulmonology. Since 2003 she is working at the Department of Radiology of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) where she combines her clinical and physiological knowledge with imaging. Her main focus is regional functional imaging of the lung. As a pulmonologist airway diseases, mainly COPD and Cystic Fibrosis are in the center of her interest. At the German Cancer Research Center she was involved in the establishment and validation of morphological and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in patients with Cystic Fibrosis. She participates at the Lung Cancer Screening and Intervention trial... View profile

Hans-Ulrich Kauczor graduated from the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University in 1989. He completed his residency in Radiology at the Department of Radiology at the University Hospital Mainz, Germany. After his fellowship in chest radiology he completed his “Habilitation” on “Functional Investigations of Pulmonary Ventilation Using CT and MRI” at Mainz University in 1998. After holding the position of the Head of the Radiology Department at the German Cancer Research Centre from 2003-2007, he is now full professor and Chairman of Radiology at the University of Heidelberg as well as Medical Director of the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology of the University Hospital Heidelberg. He has an active interest in im... View profile

I work as Principal Scientist within the Translational Science section in the Respiratory & Inflammation Research Area in AstraZeneca, Lund. My main research interests are biomarkers and genetics of respiratory disease, and in my daily work I work with different drug projects from the late pre-clinical phase and early Development. I have a Ph.D. in Microbiology and worked as an Associate Professor in Human Molecular Genetics at the Clinical Genetics Department at the University of Umeå, Sweden until 1998. When I am not at work I enjoy different outdoor activities, such as skiing, golf, hiking, or spend time with my family.

I'm working in Early Development AZ and are supporting the early projects with biomarkers for both targets and disease in Asthma and COPD. We are using MSCT for both phenotyping patients but also look for changes of the disease over time. I'm interested in the way COPACETIC do there phenotyping into more predominant emphysema vs. predominant airway disease (obstruction) using MSCT and PFT.

I am Pim de Boer, a molecular cell biologist. I have got my training in molecular uropathology as a graduate student at the Erasmus University (Rotterdam, Netherlands) and later as a winner of the Felix Guyon Scholarship as a post-doc in Créteil (France). Thereafter I specialized in molecular lung pathology as a senior researcher at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC, Leiden, Netherlands) and as university lecturer at the Erasmus University (Rotterdam). Currently, I am Head of Research at the Netherlands Asthma Foundation, involved in international research and striving for patients being partner in research. As a scientist I am affiliated with the Leiden University Medical Center.

The Netherlands Asthma Foundation ai... View profile