Steven Olde Damink

Steven Olde Damink is the head of the Surgery research department. He is a surgeon by training whose main research interests centre on the pathogenesis, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of gut and liver failure. He conducted translational research in patients on the consequences of acute and acute-on-chronic liver failure on interorgan ammonia and amino acid metabolism, the potential therapeutic role of hypothermia to treat acute liver failure and isoleucine therapy to treat acute-on-chronic liver failure. Furthermore, he demonstrated the important role of the kidney in human hyperammonemia and was involved in etiological studies on the effect of hyperammonemia on brain function and muscle catabolism using high-end innovative research settings (SPECT, MRS, stable isotope techniques). After his certification as surgeon he also studied the effects of a failing liver after partial hepatectomy and liver transplantation, with special emphasis on the effects on infection and ICU treatment and on the causative role of chemotherapeutic damage of the liver. Currently, ways to improve liver regeneration in the failing liver (hepatocyte Tx, bile-acid nuclear receptor agonism) and in the setting of the interrupted entero-hepatic cycle is a focus area of research. Furthermore, intestinal failure in patients with enterocutaneous fistulae and as a central research theme the influence of an interrupted entero-hepatic cycle on gut and liver homeostasis a main research theme. During the last few years, tumour metabolism in HPB tumours and the response of the host to these carcinomas (cancer cachexia) became a separate line of research. Furthermore, methodological research related to the feasibility of translational research and the use of different clinical endpoints (dichotomous-, composite- and surrogate endpoints) has his strong interest.

Steven Olde Damink is an expert in translational research in surgical oncology and holds full professorships at Maastricht University and Duisberg-Essen. He leads practice-changing clinical-translational research projects on host phenotyping. Steven Olde Damink also specializes in research on tumour metabolism in pancreatic tumours and the response of the host. He is PI within the Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB; special research area) 1382 Grant Gut-Liver Axis and the BMBF-funded LiSyM-Krebs Consortium. He is co-PI on PROMISE-P, an ongoing nationwide stepped-wedge cluster randomized superiority trial that investigates the best practice program for preoperative optimisation of patients scheduled for pancreatic resection within all DPCG centres.