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Rheumatology
PO Box 9101
6500 HB Nijmegen
The Netherlands
T: +31 24 3616540
F: +31 24 3540403

Fons van de Loo is programme leader of Gene Therapy research at the Department of Rheumatology Research and Advanced Therapeutics since 1998. In 2003 he became a VIDI laureate on the topic of transcriptional regulated (trans)gene expression for tailor-made gene therapy in rheumatoid arthritis.
Dr. Fons van de Loo

Research interests include inflammation and cell biology, with a special focus on cytokine signalling and development of advanced therapies for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis using gene therapeutic approaches. Major current projects include the development of auto-regulatory viral expression system for the disease-dependent expression of biologics, and exploration of novel cytokine antagonists based on soluble cytokine receptors. Adenoviral and lentiviral vectors are used for transfer of genes or short hairpin RNAs to target cytokines or signal transduction peptides in animal models of arthritis. The objective is to advance implementation of gene therapy in the clinic.

 
Recent key publications

Smeets RL, Joosten LA, Arntz OJ, Bennink MB, Takahashi N, Carlsen H, Martin MU, van den Berg WB, van de Loo FA. Soluble interleukin-1 receptor accessory protein ameliorates collagen-induced arthritis by a different mode of action from that of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist. Arthritis Rheum. 2005 Jul;52(7):2202-11.

Deze publikatie ging vergezeld met een editorial commentaar waarin onze bevindingen uitgebreid besproken werden. Editorial by Dinarello CA. The many worlds of reducing interleukin-1. Arthritis Rheum. 2005 Jul;52(7):1960-7.