Rinse Weersma

Prof. R.K. Weersma is a gastroenterologist and head of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands. His research and clinical work focuses on chronic immune mediated diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. He has been working on the role of host genetics in diseases susceptibility and aims to understand how the identified genomic variants lead to diseases and their influence on disease behaviour. The emphasis lies on integrating "multi-omics" data with high resolution clinical data by making use of both population based and disease specific biobanks. In recent years he has been working on the role of the gut microbiome in both health and disease. He is one of the leaders of the Dutch Microbiome Project and cofounded the Groningen Microbiome Center.