Speakers

Dr. Kirsi Laitinen is Associate Professor of human nutrition at the University of Turku, Institute of Biomedicine, Turku, Finland. She completed her PhD at the University of Southampton, UK, in 2000 and was inspired by the tremendous impact nutrition may have on human health. She has since completed a series of studies in Finland with particular interest in exploring the impacts of nutritional determinants during pregnancy and breastfeeding on maternal and child health. Currently Dr. Laitinen is running a clinical trial looking at the efficacy of combining active dietary ingredients, probiotics and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids on metabolic health and microbiota composition in pregnant women and their children.

Toon Ligtenberg (1962) studied biology and graduated in 1992 on studying the interaction between saliva and oral micro-organisms. He continued these studies after his graduation with special focus on salivary agglutinin or gp340, a glycoprotein involved in host defense along the whole gastro-intestinal tract. The latest years his research on salivary defense has extended on studying the effect of exercise and other lifestyle factors on saliva composition and host defense.

In addition to his research, Toon Ligtenberg organized seven times the international symposium on saliva in Egmond aan Zee, a highly appreciated conference series on all aspects of saliva. Additionally, Toon Ligtenberg is an experienced teacher at the ACTA, nominated two times for the title ‘teacher of the year’, and chair of the board of examiners at ACTA.

After obtaining his PhD in 2004 at ACTA on the structure-function relationships of salivary agglutinin Floris Bikker (1975) was appointed at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO). There, his work was aimed at diagnosis and therapy of effects of chemical- and biological warfare agents.

In 2009 he returned to ACTA where he is now head of the department of Oral Biochemistry. The research in his department is directed towards understanding the role of saliva for oral health. To exemplify, research is focused on the role of saliva for wound healing processes, saliva diagnostics and dry mouth treatments.  Besides Floris is affiliated to ACTA’s Saliva Clinic where patients suffering from xerostomia and hyposalivation are treated. So far, the work has resulted in 8 patents and over 90 scientific publications.