A. (André) Boonstra, PhD

André Boonstra received his PhD at the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. His postdoctoral training as an immunologist on infectious diseases was at the DNAX Research Institute (Palo Alto, USA) and the National Institute for Medical Research Mill Hill (London, UK). Since September 2006 he is heading the viral hepatitis research group at the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology of the Erasmus MC. 

The main focus of the research group is to better understand the mechanisms that are responsible for liver disease caused by infections with hepatitis viruses (HBV, HCV, HEV), and to determine markers that predict the development of liver cancer.  

The research benefits from extensive expertise on small-animal models, genomics/bio-informatics, and immunology of infectious diseases, as well as biomarker technology.

1. Beudeker BJB, Fu S, Balderramo D, Angelo Z. Mattos AZ, Carrera E, Diaz J, Prieto J, Banales J, Vogel A, Arrese M, Oliveira J, Groothuismink ZMA, van Oord G, Hansen BE, de Man RA, Debes JD, Boonstra A. Validation and optimization of AFP-based biomarker panels for early HCC detection in Latin America and Europe. 2023. Hepatol Comm. 7: e0264.

    

2. Genshaft AS, Subudhi S, Keo A, Sanchez Vasquez JD, Conceição-Neto N, Mahamed D, Boeijen LL, Alatrakchi N, Oetheimer C, Vilme M, Drake R, Fleming I, Tran N, Tzouanas C, Joseph-Chazan J, Arreola Villanueva M, van de Werken HJG, van Oord GW, Groothuismink ZMA, Beudeker BJ, Osmani Z, Nkongolo S, Mehrotra A, Feld J, Chung RT, de Knegt RJ, Janssen HLA, Aerssens J, Bollekens J, Hacohen N, Lauer GM, Boonstra A, Shalek AK, Gehring A. Clinical implementation of single-cell RNA sequencing using liver fine needle aspirate tissue sampling and centralized processing captures compartment specific immuno-diversity. 2023. Hepatology. Available online.

    

3. Montanari NR, Ramírez R, Aggarwal A, Van Buuren N, Doukas M, Moon C, Turner S, Diehl L, Li L, Debes JD, Feierbach B, Boonstra A. Multi-parametric analysis of human livers reveals intrahepatic inflammation variation across chronic hepatitis B infection phase. J Hep. 2022. 77(2): 332-343.

    

4. Montanari NR, Conceição-Neto N, Van Den Wyngaert I, Van Oord GW, Groothuismink ZMA, Van Tilburg S, de Man RA, Aerssens J, Boonstra A. Differential gene expression in peripheral blood between low viremic inactive carrier and NUC-treated HBV patients irrespective of circulating HBsAg levels. J Inf Dis. 2020. jiaa614.

    

5. Vanwolleghem T, Groothuismink ZMA, Kreefft K, Hung M, Novikov N, Boonstra A. Potent Hepatitis B core-specific memory B cell responses associate with clinical parameters in chronic HBV patients. J Hepatol. 2020 Jul;73(1):52-61.

    

6. Debes JD, Boonstra A, de Knegt RJ. NAFLD-related HCC and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Hepatology. 2020. 71(3):774-776.

Dr. Boonstra’s activities are characterized by active participation in numerous national and international consortia and coalitions, such as the Liver Consortium (USA, Canada, Canada, Belgium), NASH biomarker consortium (The Netherlands), HIV consortium (India), HBV Forum (USA, Canada, UK) and ICE-HBV (21 countries).

Dr. Boonstra is also initiator and coordinator of the EU-funded Horizon2020 grant ESCALON (www.escalon.eu) aimed at improving early detection and diagnosis of cancer to the liver, the bile ducts and the gall bladder.

In 2020, he received the prestigious Distinguished Hepatology Award of the Dutch Society for Hepatology (NVH), which is awarded once every 3 years to a senior Dutch scientist on the basis of track record and future perspective.

Dr. Boonstra is highly successful in acquisition of research funding from both governmental (NWO, Holland Health/LSH, NGI/FES, EU) as well as from industrial partners (e.g. Janssen Pharma, Gilead Sciences, Roche).

The research of Dr. Boonstra conducted at the Erasmus MC has been published in high-ranking journals, including numerous publications in the Journal of Hepatology (IF 20.6), Hepatology (IF 14.7), Gut (IF 19.8), and Gastroenterology (IF 20.9), and resulted in a patent.

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