Biography

Theo van den Broek is trained as a medical specialist (Medical Microbiology) and immunologist (Center for Translational Immunology) and is a translational researcher at heart.

He obtained his PhD on the dynamics of T cell reconstitution following lymphopenia at the Utrecht University in 2015. During his clinical training, he obtained a Marie Curie Global Fellowship for a postdoc in the lab of Prof. M.C. Carroll (Boston Children’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School) in Boston (USA) to investigate the dynamics of loss of B cell tolerance in autoimmunity. Following his clinical training he combined his research with clinical microbiology. In 2023 he was awarded a ZonMw VENI personal fellowship to investigate the interaction between T and B cells in the pediatric immune system.

Since 2023 he started his research group at the Center for Translational Immunology (CTI) in Utrecht. Van den Broek’s team investigates the intricate interaction between T and B cells, exploring its implications for disease, effective immunity, and immune reconstitution 

He has been actively involved in the support of career development and training for early career researchers (ECRs). He is chair of the young Dutch Society of Immunology (youngNVVI) and board member of the UMC Utrecht Young Academy. He co-founded an international open-access scientific journal (Journal of Life Sciences, JoLS) and an associated postdoc community intending to train ECRs in peer review. This initiative received (inter)national attention (ref 1, 2, 3) and resulted in his appointment as the alumnus of the month at Utrecht University.