Dr. Olaf Perdijk is an early career researcher and expert mucosal immunologist. In October 2018 he obtained his PhD degree at the Wageningen University, the Netherlands, for his work on the role of early life nutrition in regulating immune responses. He then joined the respiratory immunology laboratory lead by Prof. Marsland to study the interplay between the gut and the lung. Dr. Perdijk is pursuing his passion to unravel mechanisms through which the gut microbiome influences the immune system and how it communicates to distal organs. His current research interest is focussed on how (early-life) nutrition or antibiotic use impacts the gut-lung axis and how underlying mechanisms can be utilized to improve respiratory health. He is working with various respiratory disease models and has solidified his bioinformatic skills to analyse multiomics datasets. He is also a teaching associate for the Units MED1100, IMM3031 and IMM3042 and has been supervising several MSc students and a research technician and is currently (co)supervising graduate students in the lab.