Joost Schalkwijk, PhD

Professor of Experimental Dermatology
Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre
Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences
PO Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen
The Netherlands

phone: 31-24-3614094
fax:      31-24-3541184
j.schalkwijk@ncmls.ru.nl

www.ncmls.nl

Research focus

• Epidermis as a physical and antimicrobial barrier
  
  
• The role of proteases and protease inhibitors in epidermal differentiation
  
  
• Innate immunity of the skin

High expression levels of innate immunity genes like b-defensin-2,
in psoriatic epidermis (right) compared to normal epidermis (left).
de Jongh et al 2005, J Invest Dermatol 125: 1163

Important publications

• Zeeuwen,P.L., Cheng,T., and Schalkwijk,J. (2009) The biological role of cystatin M/E and its cognate target proteases (Review). J.Invest.Dermatol. doi:10.1038/jid.2009.40
  
  
• de Cid,R.*, Riveira-Munoz,E*., Zeeuwen,P.L.*, Robarge,J.*, Liao,W., Dannhauser,E.N., Giardina,E., Stuart,P.E., Nair,R., Helms,S., Escaramis,G., Ballana,E., Martin-Ezquerra,G., den Heijer,M., Kamsteeg,M., Eichler,E.E., Lazara,C., Pujol,R.M., Armengol,L., Abecasis,G., Elder,J.T., Novelli,G., Armour,J.A., Kwok,P., Bowcock,A., Schalkwijk,J., and Estivill,X. (2009) Deletion of the late cornified envelope (LCE) 3C and 3B genes as a susceptibility factor for psoriasis. Nat. Genet. 41(2):211-5
  *shared first-authorship
  
  
• Zeeuwen,P.L., de Jongh,G.J., Rodijk-Olthuis,D., Kamsteeg,M., Verhoosel,R.M., van Rossum,M.M., Hiemstra,P.S., and Schalkwijk,J. (2008) Genetically programmed differences in epidermal host defense between psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. PLoS ONE 3(6): e2301
  
  
• Hollox,E.J., Huffmeier,U., Zeeuwen,P.L., Palla,R., Lascorz,J., Rodijk-Olthuis,D., van de Kerkhof,P.C., Traupe,H., de Jongh,G.J., den Heijer,M., Reis,A., Armour,J.A., and Schalkwijk,J. (2008) Psoriasis is associated with increased beta-defensin genomic copy number. Nat. Genet. 40:23-25
  
  
  
• Cheng,T., Hitomi,K., van Vlijmen-Willems,I.M., de Jongh,G.J., Yamamoto,K., Nishi,K., Watts,C., Reinheckel,T., Schalkwijk,J., and Zeeuwen,P.L. (2006) Cystatin M/E is a high affinity inhibitor of cathepsin V and cathepsin L by a reactive site that is distinct from the legumain-binding site. A novel clue for the role of cystatin M/E in epidermal cornification. J.Biol.Chem. 281:15893-15899
  
  
  
• de Jongh,G.J., Zeeuwen,P.L., Kucharekova,M., Pfundt,R., van der Valk,P.G., Blokx,W., Dogan,A., Hiemstra,P.S. van de Kerkhof,P.C., and Schalkwijk,J. (2005) High expression levels of keratinocyte antimicrobial proteins in psoriasis compared with atopic dermatitis. J.Invest.Dermatol.125:1163-1173
  

 

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