Who we are
About us
The Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, promotes the advancement of science and health for all, through innovative research, advanced education, professional services and capacity sharing with partner institutions in the South.
The Unit of Tropical Bacteriology combines biomedical research, education and support of laboratory services. We focus on antibiotic resistance and both generic and specific laboratory capacity sharing. In order to achieve real impact we work closely together with the laboratory teams of our partner institutions in low- and middle-income countries.
All our publications can be found here.
Our team
Idzi Potters
medical laboratory technician & teacher, BSc
Microscopy, parasitology, helminths, teaching, morphological diagnosis, laboratory techniques
Lisette Mbuyi Kalonji
PhD candidate, MD
Surveillance of bacteremia and antibiotic resistance, Invasive Salmonellosis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Reservoir Salmonella non-Typhi, Intestinal carriage of non-Typhi Salmonella in humans
Barbara Barbé
Capacity sharing and academic support, MSc
AMR surveillance, invasive bacterial infections, laboratory strengthening in low-resource settings, field-adapted laboratory diagnostics for low-resource settings
Fiorella Krapp
PhD candidate, MD Infectious Diseases specialist
Clinical Investigation, Antimicrobial resistance surveillance, blood culture surveillance, hospital infection prevention and control, Gram-negative bacilli, bacterial genomics
Dadi Falay
PhD candidate, MD Pediatrician
Blood cultures surveillance, surveillance of zoonotic diseases
Vera Kühne
Educational Coordinator, PhD
Videos, Website, eLearning, Diagnostic lab in LRS teaching, Field lab preparedness/Lab management course, TMCDM course, Parasitology, RDTs, Microscopy, QMS, 3D printing
Jocelyne Kalema
PhD candidate, MD Clinical Microbiologist
Palpouguini Lompo
PhD candidate, MSc
Microbiology, Desinfection, Antisepsis, Hand Hygiene
Birgit de Smet
Capacity sharing and academic support, MSc
Blood culture surveillance, laboratory capacity sharing in low-resource settings
Liselotte Hardy
Senior Scientist, PhD
Biomedical scientist, unit management, lab work coordination and planning, development & implementation of adapted diagnostics for low-resource settings
Tine Vermoesen
Medical laboratory technician, BSc
Evaluation of RDTs, identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of clinical bacterial isolates
Wim Cuypers
PhD candidate, MSc
Bioinformatics, Genomics, Microbiology, Nanopore, Biodatamining
Kaat Eggermont
Admin & medical laboratory technician, BSc
Validation MSF mini-lab, identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing, logistics procedures, administrative support
Anne-Sophie Heroes
PhD candidate, Capacity sharingand academic support, MSc
Blood culture surveillance, blood transfusion, capacity sharing, hospital Infection Prevention and Control, coaching students, training bacteriology laboratory practices, photography, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Charlotte Grootaers
Education, MD Pediatrician
Coordination AIM course, capacity building projects
Ellen Corsmit
Medical laboratory technician, BSc
Validation of equipment , identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of tropical clinical bacterial isolates , coordination of laboratory work, safety promotor, training students
Bieke Tack
PhD candidate, MD
Pediatrics, invasive Salmonella infections, AMR, AMS, training workshops on blood culture sampling and antibiotic treatment, short-course on antimicrobial restistance
Jan Jacobs
Head of Unit, MD Clinical Microbiologist, PhD
Hospital infection prevention and control, patient care, education, oversea capacity building projects, invasive bacterial infections, field-adapted laboratory in-vitro diagnostics for LRS
Peter Hyland
Capacity sharing and support, MSc
Laboratory capacity building, clinical microbiology diagnostics, AMR surveillance, antimicrobial susceptibility testing
On this website we work together with our partner institutes and other units of the three departments of ITM to share recourses (procedures, documents, educational material, publications and more) for laboratories in resource limited settings.