Linette Willemsen

Associate Professor, Pharmacology, Utrecht University  

Mucosal Immunology and Pharma & Nutrition

My research focusses on the mechanisms by which specific dietary components such as fermentable fibers, bacterial fermentation products or n-3 long chain poly-unsaturated fatty acids reduce the risk of developing non-communicable immune disorders such as food allergy or asthma. Furthermore we develop mucosal immune models in which we can show that specific nutrients protect against infection induced inflammation and/or barrier disruption. These dietary components improve mucosal and/or systemic immune function as we showed in vivo, and in human in vitro co-culture models studying the crosstalk between structural (epithelial cells) and immune cells. Recently we developed a sequential series of mucosal co-culture models mimicking the allergic sensitization cascade, in which we studied the immunomodulatory effects of human milk oligosaccharides or n-3 LC-PUFA on allergen induced type 2 activation. On the other hand non-digestible oligosaccharides or bacterial fermentation products also were shown to boost defense against viral or bacterial toxin or LPS induced inflammation and/or barrier disruption. By creating awareness for the beneficial effects of dietary components on immune health, I hope this will lead to their future use as adjunct therapy to support pharma in alleviating chronic allergic or inflammatory disorders.