The mission statement of this department is to advance the understanding of intensive care medicine (ICM) through basic and applied research, and to translate innovations into (cost–)effective approaches for disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
Goals and ambition – to be an internationally renowned center of research both relevant to the specialty and in line with the core research theme “Infection and Immunology” of the AMC, with research conducted at an experimental level (in the Laboratory of Experimental Intensive Care and Anesthesiology, LEICA) and at a clinical level (in the department of ICM), in close collaboration with other (inter–)national departments and laboratories of ICM.
Research lines
The research line focuses on inflammatory responses during critical illness, in particular sepsis and subsequent organ injuries. The projects include basic research in studies of cells, tissues and organs, models of sepsis, pneumonia and acute lung injury in animals, and clinical trials evaluating specific therapeutic interventions in humans. Typical research topics include, but are not restricted to ventilator–induced lung injury, sepsis–induced organ injuries, transfusion–related lung injury and critical illness neuropathy. Systemic and volatile markers that reflect the nature and severity of the inflammatory response during sepsis and subsequent organ injuries are investigated. Interventions aiming at attenuating the exaggerated inflammatory response.