I’m Julia Kiefmann, and I recently completed the first year of my Master’s in Medical Biology at Radboud University in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. As part of my first year internship, I joined the Muco-Kids study under the supervision of Lilly Verhagen and Marieke van der Zalm.

On 11 June, the Paediatric Respiratory Infection & Immunity Group traded the lab and hospital for the golf course for an afternoon. Together with our South African co-PIs, we headed to Golf Course Landgoed Bleijenbeek for a group golf clinic.

Together with colleagues from UMC Utrecht, we found that young children with recurrent respiratory tract infections have lower levels of Bifidobacterium in their gut microbiome, which was also associated with mucosal IgA responses. The findings add to growing evidence that the gut microbiome and mucosal immunity are closely connected.