Antibody and Complement Effector Functions: Pathogenic Roles and Therapeutic Potential
Event details
| Date | 20.11.2025 |
| Hour | 10:30 › 11:30 |
| Speaker | Karel F.A. Van Damme, Ghent University, Belgium |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
Abstract:
Biography:
Karel F.A. Van Damme is a final-year resident rheumatology at Ghent University (Belgium), with clinical training across Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Ecuador. He earned his PhD in 2024 at the VIB Center for Inflammation Research in the lab of Bart Lambrecht.
His research has focused on the fundamental mechanisms of inflammatory diseases using transgenic and gnotobiotic mouse models, particularly in the context of dysregulated NF-κB signaling. His work was supported by a personal PhD fellowship and a Lupus Innovation Award.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Karel coordinated three randomized clinical trials which directly informed global treatment guidelines. Using single-cell and proteomic approaches, he revealed an unexpected role for IL-6-driven complement dysregulation in lung injury.
He has established multiple collaborations with biotech companies, contributing to the development of a commercially available humanized mouse line for improved preclinical antibody modeling and exploring novel indications for first-in-class immunotherapies.
During his post-doc, Karel aims to develop expertise in systems biology, combining advanced experimental, translational, and computational approaches to uncover mechanisms of immune dysregulation.
Humoral immunity, composed of antibodies and complement, continuously surveys the bloodstream and tissues to maintain immune homeostasis. These circulating components recognize pathogens and damaged cells, activate the complement cascade, and trigger cellular responses via Fc receptors. In this seminar, I will discuss our recent work on both the dysregulation and the therapeutic exploitation of these humoral effector mechanisms.
Monoclonal antibodies have revolutionized clinical practice, yet predicting their efficacy in preclinical models remains challenging. We mapped antibody effector functions across species at the proteomic, transcriptomic, and gene regulatory level, revealing major differences between species which compromise the translational accuracy. To address this, we generated and extensively validated a novel humanized mouse model incorporating all major human Fcγ receptors, improving the preclinical assessment of antibody-based therapeutics (Van Damme et al., Science Immunology, in press).
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted three multicenter randomized controlled trials evaluating complement and cytokine interventions in patients with severe respiratory failure. Integrating clinical data with proteomic and transcriptomic analyses, we identified IL-6– and STAT1/3-driven alternative complement pathway activation as a central mechanism of lung injury. These findings establish complement dysregulation as a key therapeutic target in COVID-19 (Van Damme et al., Science Translational Medicine, 2023).
Monoclonal antibodies have revolutionized clinical practice, yet predicting their efficacy in preclinical models remains challenging. We mapped antibody effector functions across species at the proteomic, transcriptomic, and gene regulatory level, revealing major differences between species which compromise the translational accuracy. To address this, we generated and extensively validated a novel humanized mouse model incorporating all major human Fcγ receptors, improving the preclinical assessment of antibody-based therapeutics (Van Damme et al., Science Immunology, in press).
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted three multicenter randomized controlled trials evaluating complement and cytokine interventions in patients with severe respiratory failure. Integrating clinical data with proteomic and transcriptomic analyses, we identified IL-6– and STAT1/3-driven alternative complement pathway activation as a central mechanism of lung injury. These findings establish complement dysregulation as a key therapeutic target in COVID-19 (Van Damme et al., Science Translational Medicine, 2023).
Karel F.A. Van Damme is a final-year resident rheumatology at Ghent University (Belgium), with clinical training across Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Ecuador. He earned his PhD in 2024 at the VIB Center for Inflammation Research in the lab of Bart Lambrecht.
His research has focused on the fundamental mechanisms of inflammatory diseases using transgenic and gnotobiotic mouse models, particularly in the context of dysregulated NF-κB signaling. His work was supported by a personal PhD fellowship and a Lupus Innovation Award.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Karel coordinated three randomized clinical trials which directly informed global treatment guidelines. Using single-cell and proteomic approaches, he revealed an unexpected role for IL-6-driven complement dysregulation in lung injury.
He has established multiple collaborations with biotech companies, contributing to the development of a commercially available humanized mouse line for improved preclinical antibody modeling and exploring novel indications for first-in-class immunotherapies.
During his post-doc, Karel aims to develop expertise in systems biology, combining advanced experimental, translational, and computational approaches to uncover mechanisms of immune dysregulation.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- Prof. Bart Deplancke
Contact
- Joanna Rusnok
[email protected]