Dutch and Caribbean partners meet to advance paediatric mucosal immunity research

On 3 December, Dutch and Caribbean partners came together for a joint RISE-ENT and EMINENT partner meeting, marking an important milestone for the EMINENT study.

After two years of intensive work by the study team, participating hospitals, and ENT specialists from Radboudumc, Canisius-Wilhelmina hospital and Rijnstate, patient inclusion for the EMINENT cohort has now been successfully completed. To celebrate this achievement, the consortium met for an evening meeting and dinner at Huize Heyendael, where we discussed the current analysis strategy, reviewed preliminary data, and received valuable feedback from a clinical perspective.

Colleagues from the Caribbean joined the meeting as well, reflecting the close alignment between EMINENT and the parallel RISE-ENT study currently running at Sint Maarten Medical Center. This unique set-up enables direct comparison of mucosal immune cell populations between children in the Netherlands and the Caribbean. Patient recruitment in St. Maarten is ongoing.

The EMINENT study is an observational cohort of children undergoing tonsillectomy, in which mucosal tissue is collected to characterise immune cell composition in the respiratory tract. Together with RISE-ENT, the project aims to deepen our understanding of mucosal immunity across different populations and settings.

A great example of how sustained international collaboration accelerates progress in paediatric respiratory immunology.