Dr EHD Bel (b. 1956) has been appointed professor of Pulmonary Diseases at the Faculty of Medicine (AMC-UvA) of the Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA).

Elisabeth Bel obtained a doctorate in 1990 on the subject of Bronchial hyper-reactivity in patients with asthma and further specialised in the field of asthma. Her current research focuses on the more severe types of asthma that are difficult to treat, with a particular emphasis on the phenotyping, pathophysiological mechanisms, monitoring and therapeutic approach of this complex condition. Her research questions emanate directly from daily pulmonary practice, and in her attempts to find answers she uses pulmonary physiological, histological and molecular research techniques.

One important component of professor Bel’s research is cooperation with national and European lung clinics, for example within the context of EU framework programmes. In collaboration with the Netherlands Severe Asthma Research Network, professor Bel is currently working out guidelines for the diagnostics and treatment of persistent asthma. In addition, she is drawing up a research programme focusing on asthma onset at adult or advanced age.

Professor Bel will concentrate on the promotion of top referent care (i.e., care for which patients are specifically referred to a university hospital) and associated translational scientific research (i.e., research carried out while the patient is receiving clinical treatment). With the members of staff of the Department of Pulmonary Diseases, she will explore chronic disorders of the respiratory tract, interstitial pulmonary conditions and secondary pulmonary hypertension. In the field of cystic fibrosis and thoracic oncology she will seek collaboration with other research groups. In addition, professor Bel will endeavour to organise the lung specialist training programme in accordance with European guidelines and incorporate international exchange initiatives into the curriculum.

Until recently, Elisabeth Bel was associated with the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), where she worked initially as a university lecturer and later as a staff doctor, senior university lecturer, head of the Pulmonary Diseases Outpatients’ Clinic, and chairperson of the Outpatients’ Clinic Section Heads for Internal Medicine. She did a fellowship at the Allergology Department of the University of Virginia and founded the Multidisciplinary Centre for Asthma and Allergy at the LUMC. Moreover, professor Bel has been a member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine since 2000 and a member of the Board and member of the Science Committee of the European Respiratory Society since 2002.