Our lab investigates the aetiology and pathophysiology of neuromuscular autoimmune diseases and IgG4-predominated autoimmune diseases using 2D and 3D cell cultures, genetic and passive transfer animal models and a variety of immunological methods. The goal of our lab is to get a fundamental understanding of the processes that contribute to the development and chronification of these diseases and use this knowledge to develop novel treatments for them.

Our ambitious objectives are explored in close collaboration with a variety of (inter)national collaborators and the clinical research group Clinical Neuroimmunology of Prof. Dr. Jan Verschuuren and Dr. Martijn Tannemaat and electrophysiology expert Dr. Jaap Plomp at the department of Neurology, which is part of the center of expertise for Neuromuscular diseases in the LUMC. This is one of the Health Care Providers of the EURO-NMD European Reference Network and part of NL-NMD (Dutch society for neuromuscular diseases).

Our research involves the following three main objectives:

1. Understanding the pathophysiology of myasthenia gravis
2. Deciphering and targeting (pathogenic) IgG4 (auto)immune responses.
3. Therapeutic application of MuSK antibodies in neuromuscular diseases.

For more information, please visit www.huijberslab.org.

Expertises: IgG4 Autoimmune Diseases, Myasthenia Gravis, MuSK, IgG4, autoantibodies, AChR, LEMS, molecular biology, immunological techniques including ELISA, SPR, flow cytometry, cell culture, genetic models, passive transfer models and genetic technologies.

Thesis: 06/07/2017, The pathophysiology of MuSK myasthenia gravis