dr. Evi Duthoo (PhD)

Inborn errors of immunity (IEI) are rare genetic disorders that often present early in life and arise from defects in fundamental cellular processes required for immune development and function. Beyond recurrent infections, many IEI patients present with increased susceptibility to cancer, underscoring the close link between immune dysfunction, genomic instability, and malignant transformation. My research aims to unravel how defects in core cellular stress response pathways - including DNA damage responses and ribosome-associated stress pathways - shape immune dysfunction, disease severity, and, by extension, cancer susceptibility. During my PhD, I investigated how defects in DNA damage repair and replication stress responses impair lymphocyte development and immune function. This work identified novel disease mechanisms linking genome instability to immune deficiency, contributed to improved functional diagnostic approaches for IEI, and established replication stress as an important driver of immune failure. In my current postdoctoral work, I have expanded this focus to additional core cellular stress pathways, including those associated with ribosome biogenesis and nucleolar function. 
 

In 2018, I obtained a Master of Science (MSc) in Biomedical Sciences with a major in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at Ghent University. I subsequently joined the lab of Prof. Dr. Filomeen Haerynck as a full-time doctoral student, where my research focused on DNA damage repair and replication stress pathways in inborn errors of immunity. After obtaining my PhD in June 2025, I continued my research as a postdoctoral researcher in the Primary Immunodeficiency Research Lab (PIRL) of Prof. Dr. Filomeen Haerynck.
 

• Lab address: Ghent University Hospital, Medical Research Building 2 (entrance 38, 3th Floor),  Corneel Heymanslaan 10, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
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• Evi Duthoo is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks