CEV is a strong multidisciplinary research group, participating regularly in national and international vaccine research. CEV holds a platform for conducting vaccine trials (phase 1-4) and is involved in many policy projects related to infectious disease epidemiology and vaccination.
At the national level, CEV has established collaborations with different units within UAntwerpen, different other Universities in Belgium and several scientific health institutions. During the past years, several international collaborations have started with the University of Hanoi and Can Tho in Vietnam (Pham TT, et al. Vaccine 2018), Bangkok in Thailand (Wanlapakom N, et al, Vaccine 2018), and UNIKIN (DRC Congo). In view of the Global Polio Eradication program, CEV is partnering with PATH, CDC and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in current and future polio vaccine trials. CEV has developed expertise in (1) the epidemiology and surveillance of infectious diseases, improving data usage at the regional, national and international level to aid decision making in Flanders, Belgium and Europe (Braeckman Epid Inf 2018); (2) the kinetics of passive and vaccine-induced antibodies with maternal and neonatal/infant immunity research (Maertens JID 2017 - Maertens PIDJ 2017 - Maertens CID 2017); (3) research on infectious disease agents in body fluids (other than serum) enabling the development of tools to identify sexually transmitted infections (e.g. HPV, Chlamydia, …) in easily collectable human specimens (urine & saliva samples) (Van Keer Eur J Clin Micr Inf Dis 2018; Vorsters BMJ 2014); (4) coordinating multicenter vaccine trials as well as conducting unique phase 1 trials. This enables spin off research: studying (with LEH) the cellular immunity and antibody kinetics triggered by these candidate vaccines, the process of immunosenescence, and searching for alternatives to administer these new vaccines, e.g. research in intradermal devices in collaboration with Product Development (Van Damme Hum Vaccin Imm 2017; Van Damme Clin Cancer Res 2016).