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Researcher
Heidi Theeten
- Research Expertise:dr Theeten conducted clinical trials with candidate vaccines against different diseases (hepatitis A and B, adult diphtheria‐tetanus‐pertussis booster, human papilloma virus, meningococcal C), as well as seroprevalence studies (based on immuno-assay; antibodies) on vaccine‐preventable diseases on a national level (in cooperation with the IPH) and vaccination coverage studies in Flanders. As a post-doctoral researcher, she continues supervising vaccination coverage and seroporevalence studies. Those require quantitative data collection and analysis, statistics and modeling techniques. She was funded by the Flemish Research Fund for a 3-year fellowship to look at cytomegalovirus infection and its association with immunosenescence (immuno-assays on humoral and cellular immunity level), and has promoted doctoral research on intradermal vaccination in infants (immuno-assay, imaging and quantitative analysis). Since 2016 she coordinates a project to monitor nasopharyngeal pneumococcal carriage in infants in Belgium (sample collection in a random selection of daycare centers and trough physicians; culture-based as well as molecular analysis, quantitative data analysis). She added monitoring carriage of other pathogens i.e. H Influenzae and M Cattharalis to this project, and recently also viruses such as COVID 19. She also studied the impact of the latter during the pandemic. As professor in the Master after Master Youth Health Care, she also supervised master thesises on a variety of subjects in this area.
- Keywords:YOUTH HEALTH CARE, VACCINES, Medicine
- Disciplines:Immunology, Laboratory medicine, Microbiology, Paediatrics and neonatology, Other clinical sciences, Other medical and health sciences, Vaccinology, Molecular diagnostics
- Research techniques:selection of random or stratified random samples; cluster sampling; creating questionnaires; medical assessment; quantitative data analysis; modeling; standardized sample collection; interpretation of immuno-assays (ism laboratories); interpretation of surveillance data; literature review
- Users of research expertise:research institutes active in the field of infections and their prevention including vaccines; governments and governmental institutions; expert commission; private companies who develop vaccines