prof. dr. D.J. (Dirk-Jan) Slebos

Biosketch Prof. dr Dirk-Jan Slebos (31-10-1968)

·       Current position: Professor of Pulmonary diseases & Interventional Bronchoscopy, and Head of the department of pulmonary diseases, University Medical Center Groningen/NL,

·       Registration as a specialist: 01/10/2003; medical specialty: Pulmonary Medicine

Academic profile

Motivation for doing research in general

Curiosity, innovation, and improving unmet needs are a few of my personal drives to perform research. As a pulmonary physician on a daily basis, it is very visible that life is very vulnerable, and “that every breath counts”. After having seen thousands of severe COPD patients for a wide variety of often still experimental interventional pulmonary treatments, it became obvious that we are only able to effectively treat a very small portion of this patient population. With an international alliance we have a greater opportunity to succeed in further developing new strategies, improve current practice and drive training & education.

Lines of (independent) research

My own research and research group is one of the key players in the world around the development of innovative, minimally invasive therapeutic interventional treatments for COPD (both bronchitis and emphysema). Bringing ideas in this exciting field from bench to bedside, and even getting them worldwide approved, used, and embedded in treatment guidelines is my key focus. More specific my research deals with 1) invention and early adaption of medical devices for COPD, 2) advanced COPD imaging for precise phenotyping supporting new interventions, 3) as spin-off: innovative interventional pulmonology treatments for other lung diseases (mainly lung cancer and benign airway disease), and 4) translational research in COPD.

Collaborations with industry or other stakeholders & Networking capabilities

I work very closely on new developments in this field together with a large number of individual inventors, small start-up companies, and established larger companies (PulmonX, Corp, USA; Bronchus Tech. USA; Apreo, USA; Nuvaira, USA; CSA_Medical, USA; MoreAir, USA; FreeFlowMedical, USA; PneumRx/BTG, USA). Scientifically, I have a world-wide network with all key-investigators in this field of interventional pulmonology world-wide.

Knowledge utilisation, outreach, popularisation and public engagement

The outreach of our scientific clinical work has led to the implementation of new treatments for emphysema worldwide, such as the endobronchial valve- and coil treatments, which are currently guideline therapies. Creating therapies for a severe – and often untreatable - disease as COPD results in a lot of public awareness. Our work therefore often results in news items, television documentaries, and magazine articles worldwide. Being one of the key players in this field, I advise scientific medical groups, hospitals, and individual physicians on these new treatments, both as research opportunity, but also on an individual patient level in over 40 countries worldwide.

Invited lectures, prizes, awards and grants

Previous grants from Innovation funds, ZonMW, and Dutch Lung foundation (Longfonds) have significantly supported the development of my line of research and individual therapies. With the current outreach, there is large demand on giving invited lectures worldwide, which are maximized to a few key-lectures a month to make sure the developing work in the UMCG continues.

Key Output

1.        Slebos DJ, Shah PL, Herth FJ, Pison C, Schumann C, Hübner RH, Bonta PI, Kessler R, Gesierich W, Darwiche K, Lamprecht B, Perez T, Skowasch D, Deslee G, Marceau A, Sciurba FC, Gosens R, Hartman JE, Srikanthan K, Duller M, Valipour A; AIRFLOW-2 Trial Study Group. Safety and Adverse Events after Targeted Lung Denervation for Symptomatic Moderate to Severe COPD (AIRFLOW): A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2019 Dec;200(12):1477-1486. PMID: 31404499.

2.        Criner GJ, Sue R, Wright S, Dransfield M, Rivas-Perez H, Wiese T, Sciurba FC, Shah PL, Wahidi MM, de Oliveira HG, Morrissey B, Cardoso PFG, Hays S, Majid A, Pastis N Jr, Kopas L, Vollenweider M, McFadden PM, Machuzak M, Hsia DW, Sung A, Jarad N, Kornaszewska M, Hazelrigg S, Krishna G, Armstrong B, Shargill NS, Slebos DJ; LIBERATE Study Group. A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial of Zephyr Endobronchial Valve Treatment in Heterogeneous Emphysema (LIBERATE). Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2018 Nov 1;198(9):1151-1164. PMID: 29787288.

3.        Sciurba FC, Criner GJ, Strange C, Shah PL, Michaud G, Connolly TA, Deslée G, Tillis WP, Delage A, Marquette CH, Krishna G, Kalhan R, Ferguson JS, Jantz M, Maldonado F, McKenna R, Majid A, Rai N, Gay S, Dransfield MT, Angel L, Maxfield R, Herth FJ, Wahidi MM, Mehta A, Slebos DJ; RENEW Study Research Group. Effect of Endobronchial Coils vs Usual Care on Exercise Tolerance in Patients With Severe Emphysema: The RENEW Trial. JAMA. 2016;315:2178-89.

4.        Klooster K, Ten Hacken NH, Hartman JE, Kerstjens HA, van Rikxoort EM, Slebos DJ. Endobronchial Valves for Emphysema without Interlobar Collateral Ventilation. N Engl J Med. 2015;373:2325-2335.

5.        Shah PL, Slebos DJ, Cardoso PF, Cetti E, Voelker K, Levine B, Russell ME, Goldin J, Brown M, Cooper JD, Sybrecht GW; EASE trial study group. Bronchoscopic lung-volume reduction with Exhale airway stents for emphysema (EASE trial): randomised, sham-controlled, multicentre trial. Lancet. 2011;378:997-1005.