Our team

The BUGS project is carried out by members of the research groups LAMB and SUSTAIN, both from the Department of Biosciences Engineering. LAMB, short for Laboratory of Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, focuses on beneficial microorganisms and explores their potential to enhance human and environmental health. SUSTAIN (Biobased Sustainability Engineering), focuses on technology- and nature-based solutions target local and global environmental challenges derived from global change. By combining the expertise of the two research groups, the BUGS team is perfect for investigating how urban green spaces and their microbes can help combat the raise of immune diseases in urban areas - a health issue linked to global change.

​Irina Spacova is a professor of bioscience engineering at the University of Antwerp. For the last 10 years, she has been investigating how microbes can help train the human immune system by using laboratory techniques, citizen science and clinical studies. Together with her colleagues at LAMB, she aims to develop microbe-inspired solutions to improve human health in cities.

​Roeland Samson is the head of the Lab of Environmental and Urban Ecology (within SUSTAIN). He has expertise in nature-based solutions for sustainable cities, ecosystem services and biodiversity of urban green infrastructure, (biomagnetic) monitoring of air pollution and microclimate in urban environments, air pollution-vegetation interactions and urban ecology.

​Agustina Santullo Latorre is a PhD researcher from both SUSTAIN and LAMB. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from the University of Barcelona, and a Master's degree in Biology with a specialisation on Global Change from the University of Antwerp. She is interested in the connections between environmental and human health, recognising the interdependence of all life forms and the critical role biodiversity plays in sustaining life.

Wenke Smets is a microbiology researcher at the University of Antwerp. She studies the bacterial ecosystems of the environment with special attention for bacteria living on the leaves of plants. She is not only motivated to study these complex microscopic ecosystems because they are fascinating, but also because they can be very useful. When used in the right way, bacteria on leaves can protect crops instead of pesticides, purify polluted air, and maybe help improve our health directly, by properly training our immune system.

This project would not be possible without the support of other team members, including Camille Allonsius and Kyra Koch (project coordinators at the Department of Bioscience Engineering, University of Antwerp), and Stijn Verhulst (director of the Department of Pediatrics at the Antwerp University Hospital and professor at the Laboratory of Experimental Medicine and Pediatrics (LEMP), University of Antwerp).