Expertise

In Ha Noi (2015-present), based at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Rogier leads a unit of over 50 research and research support staff with a total of 4 principal investigators working on antimicrobial resistance: surveillance, stewardship, laboratory capacity building, microbiome, hospital and community studies including community intervention trials (ICAT, CoAct/Chung Tay, AWaRe1), and public and policy engagement. OUCRU Hanoi also acts as a site for clinical trials like SURE, VIETNarms, RECOVERY. One of his own research interests is optimizing AMR surveillance in low- and middle-income settings by adding clinical metadata to isolate-based data (including whole genome sequences) to contextualise these with clinical, treatment, and outcome data (ACORN: A Clinically Oriented antimicrobial Resistance surveillance Network, acornamr.net).

In Ho Chi Minh City, as group head of the emerging infections group (2007-2015), Rogier led the reference virology lab for the Southeast Asian Infectious Disease Clinical Research Network, conducting analyses of several diagnostic and intervention studies on human influenza. Rogier developed molecular diagnostic laboratory capacity in local hospitals and a BSL3/SAPO4 facility at OUCRU. He worked on diagnostics, preparedness and clinical research of emerging infections, and set up and led a multidisciplinary research programme on Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease.

Rogier is a medical doctor, who has an MSc in Medical Biology with a thesis on the structure of IgG4 antibodies, and a PhD in Bacteriology on rapid diagnosis and resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Research Focus

Rogier’s own current research interests are improving data for estimating the burden of antimicrobial resistance through “A Clinically Oriented Antimicrobial resistance surveillance Network” (ACORN), genomic surveillance of antimicrobial resistance, serology-based surveillance to research emerging and vaccine-preventable diseases, and studying potential interventions to impact community use of antibiotics.