The Laboratory for Bacteriology Research (LBR), Department of Diagnostic Sciences,
Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences (director Mario Vaneechoutte) is located in the
Medical Research Building II, campus Ghent University Hospital.
Research activities at the LBR are focused on the development and application of
molecular methods to diagnose microbial acute and chronic infections, to monitor
hospital epidemiology and to characterize the complex microbiomes of the human
intestine, airways and vagina in health and disease.
In addition, special interest goes to bacteriophage therapy.
Together with Alexander Swidsinski (Charité Hospital, Berlin, Germany), it was
shown how the viscosity gradient within the mucus layer determines the spatial
organization of the intestinal microbiota.
At present, the LBR (PhD research of Tessa Gryp) is involved in the FWO-project,
entitled “The gut-renal axis: link between plasma levels of intestinally
generated uraemic toxins and gut microbiome profiles in consecutive stages of
chronic kidney disease”, together with Griet Glorieux (UGent) and Jeroen Raes,
Marie Joossens and Geert Huys (KULeuven).
The LBR is equipped to culture (aerobically and anaerobically), to quantify (qPCR)
and to visualize (FISH) specific bacterial and fungal species in the original
context of the clinical sample, assisting the MIIT lab (Lars Vereecke) for the
anaerobic culture of bacterial isolates for their application in gnotobiotic mice.