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
Jan Jacobs
Former head of the 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
Idzi Potters
medical laboratory technician & teacher, BSc
Microscopy, parasitology, helminths, teaching, morphological diagnosis, laboratory techniques
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
Kaat Eggermont
Admin & medical laboratory technician, BSc
Validation MSF mini-lab, identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing, logistics procedures, administrative support
Anne-Sophie Heroes
Capacity sharing and academic support, PhD
AMR surveillance, capacity sharing clinical bacteriology laboratory, coaching students, coordination laboratory courses, blood transfusion
Acsa Igizeneza
PhD Candidate, MSc
Antimicrobial Stewardship in LMICs, Blood stream infections, Antimicrobial resistance surveillance
Jens Cornelis
PhD Candidate, MSC
Electronics engineering, blood cultures, diagnostics, machine learning
Peter Hyland
Capacity sharing and support, MSc
Laboratory capacity building, clinical microbiology diagnostics, AMR surveillance, antimicrobial susceptibility testing
Bieke Tack
Invited researcher, MD PhD
Pediatric infectious diseases & care in low-resource settings, invasive Salmonella infections, antimicrobial resistance & stewardship
Liselotte Hardy
Head of the unit, PhD
Biomedical scientist, unit management, lab work coordination and planning, development & implementation of field-appropiate diagnostics for low-resource settings
Birgit de Smet
Capacity sharing and academic support, MSc
Blood culture surveillance, laboratory capacity sharing in low-resource settings
Jocelyne Kalema
PhD candidate, MD Clinical Microbiologist
Infection prevention and control in sub-Saharan african, blood cultures in the Ebola Virus Disease care response, bacterial contamination of handwashing stations, blood culture surveillance.
Tine Vermoesen
Medical laboratory technician, BSc
Evaluation of RDTs, identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of clinical bacterial isolates
Anke Breine
Researcher, PhD
Bioengineer, grant writing, research communication, project and lab work coordination, global bacterial diagnostics
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
Palpouguini Lompo
Invited researcher, PhD
Microbiology, Desinfection, Antisepsis, Hand Hygiene
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.