Bio
Mart Lamers is an Assistant Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School and group leader of the coronavirus lab in the Programme of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Mart received his BS in Biology from the University of Amsterdam in 2013 and his MS in Infection & Immunity from the Erasmus MC in 2015. In 2022, he completed his PhD at the Erasmus MC in the group of prof. Bart Haagmans on the topic of coronavirus pathogenesis and evolution.
Mart is interested in virus-host interactions relevant to pandemic potential and studies these in organoid systems of humans and animals.
He aims to identify animal coronaviruses that are able to infect humans, uncover the mechanisms by which they infect human cells, and investigate the susceptibility to these viruses at the population level.
The planet’s current changes in human and domestic animal population size, urbanization, global connectivity, climate, wildlife trade, ecosystem health and land use, guarantee that humanity will face new, previously unrecognized animal viruses that can infect humans (zoonotic viruses) in the next decades. Among zoonotic viruses, coronaviruses pose a high risk to global health due to their abundance and diversity in wildlife and proven ability to adapt to infect and spread between humans. This is not only exemplified by the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic that has had a devastating societal and economic impact over the past three years, but also by the emergence of particularly virulent SARS-CoV in 2003-2004 and MERS-CoV since 2012. Therefore, there is an urgent need to better prepare for future outbreaks of zoonotic coronaviruses, and especially assess their likelihood of achieving human-to-human transmission.
His lab aims to to identify animal coronaviruses that are able to infect humans, uncover the mechanisms by which they infect human cells, and investigate the susceptibility to these viruses at the population level. Such viruses will be identified through various experiments directed at assessing whether and how these viruses overcome barriers known to restrict viruses from infecting human cells. As viruses are obligate intracellular parasites that rely on a plethora of fine-tuned virus-host interactions, this research needs to be performed in cells that accurately mimic viral target cells in vivo. This can be achieved using organoid technology, in which differentiated, physiologically relevant human or animal cells are grown from self-renewing stem cell cultures to grow ‘mini-organs’. The application of organoid technology (alongside other technologies, e.g. CRISPR/Cas9, single cell omics, and antigenic mapping) in this research will lead to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms that allow coronaviruses to cause pandemics. This will aid in the development of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines to coronaviruses that may cause future pandemics, and ultimately aid in predicting coronavirus pandemic potential based on genomic sequences. Our cutting-edge platforms and an approach on coronaviruses can be translated and used for other emerging pathogens.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy with Distinction
Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
Master(Science - Infection & Immunity (research)
Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
Bachelor of Science with Distinction
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands