Professor Gerlinde Van de Walle on stem cells and viral infections

Tell me a bit about yourself and your research. 

I'm from Belgium, and I’m a vet by training. After vet school, I got my PhD in veterinary virology studying herpes viruses, and then worked as a post-doctoral researcher in Belgium and the US.

I started my independent research group when I moved back from the US to the University of Ghent, in Belgium. I developed an interest in stem cell research, especially in veterinary species. In 2013, I moved to the vet school at Cornell University in the US, where I built up my research lab with a dual focus on virology and stem cell biology.

Around two and a half years ago I moved to the Roslin Institute, where my lab is focused on the intersection between viruses and stem cells.

What inspired you to move from veterinary medicine into research?

I went to vet school because I wanted to treat animals, but discovered that the course I enjoyed the most was anatomic pathology. I was fascinated by the process of trying to work out why an animal had died, which isn't always obvious. I loved that element of problem-solving, of trying to solve a puzzle, and that's what drew me towards research. When I started my own independent research group at Ghent, there wasn't much stem cell research taking place at the veterinary school, so I decided to focus on that. That's how I started working with stem cells.

What then led you to the Roslin Institute? 

In 2020, I became eligible for a sabbatical. I wanted to spend it with my family, so we started looking at potential destinations, and Roslin was one of them.

I was fortunate to spend six months in Professor Xavier Donadeu’s stem cell research lab. Although the pandemic meant I had limited opportunities to meet other researchers, we were able to explore Scotland, which I’d never visited before. My family and I fell in love with the country, despite the challenges of travelling during that time.

When a position later became available at the School, it was an easy decision to return.

You’re establishing your lab at Roslin. What are your plans for your research?

At the moment, we’re focusing on securing funding and identifying promising research opportunities. So far, much of our work has explored stem cells from a regenerative and antimicrobial perspective, but we’re now looking at how they can be used to develop organoid models for studying viral infections.

We’re developing these models through collaborations with Roslin researchers. For example, my PhD student is investigating how to differentiate feline induced pluripotent stem cells into macrophages to study feline coronaviruses, a project in collaboration with Dr Christine Tait-Burkard and colleagues, and funded by the Morris Animal and EveryCat Health Foundations.

We’ve also recently secured a Hannah Dairy Research Foundation grant to investigate the antimicrobial properties of stem cells from different bovine species, in collaboration with Prof. Alastair McRae and colleagues at Dairy Farm.

A key priority is to build collaborations and develop research that aligns with Roslin’s strengths. My work at Cornell focused primarily on horses, dogs and cats, but being at Roslin provides opportunities to expand into livestock research.

What developments in stem cell research are you most excited about?

I find the recent advances in pluripotent stem cell (iPSCs) research very exciting. These can be differentiated into a wide range of cell types, opening up opportunities to study viral and bacterial infections, develop disease models and explore regenerative medicine applications.

I think being at the forefront of this growing field, particularly in companion animals, would be very exciting. There is considerable potential to build on these models and endless possibilities to explore new research directions.

How can research in animals contribute to human health?

There are important parallels between animal and human health, particularly in regenerative medicine. For example, I’ve worked on wound healing in horses, investigating how stem cells can support tissue repair and inhibit bacterial growth.

Equine wounds are frequently infected with bacteria that are also relevant to human health. This means findings from animal models could help inform research into infected wounds in people. Animal research can also provide a valuable intermediate step between mouse models and human studies, helping us understand how potential treatments might work before they are investigated in humans.

What would you like the public to understand about stem cell research?

I think it’s important to explain where the cells come from.

We work with stem cells that can be isolated from blood samples, as well as induced pluripotent stem cells created by reprogramming other cells, such as those obtained from a skin biopsy. We do not work with embryonic stem cells, so making this distinction can help people better understand the research and the approaches we use.

How do you approach discussing the ethics of animal research with students?

I give a lecture to final-year students taking pathology, where I talk about our research into the pathogenesis of newly discovered liver-tropic viruses in horses. Students often have questions about the ethics of the work.

I think the most important thing is to be honest. We would never conduct an animal experiment without the appropriate ethical approval, whether through an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), or the Veterinary Ethical Review Committee within the School.

What is your favourite part of your job, and what inspires you to keep going?

I like writing grants! I like writing papers, too. I'm disappointed if a grant isn't funded, of course, but I love the process of thinking about what the next research project could be. Even when things don't work out, you can build on what you've learned and take those ideas in a different direction. You have to dig into the literature, find out what's already been done and what hasn't, and think about where you could take the research next. I just love that process. 

I also really enjoy working with students to write up their experiments and turn their findings into a paper. The writing part is something I genuinely enjoy.