Filip Van Immerseel is Master in Bio-engineering Sciences (1999) and Master in Laboratory Animal Sciences (2004) and received a PhD in Veterinary Medical Sciences in 2004, studying environmental triggers in the gut that influence Salmonella invasion. After a post-doc period, he was appointed as Research Professor by Ghent University in 2008. Currently he is Full Professor at the Department of Pathobiology, Pharmacology and Zoological Medicine at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Ghent University in Belgium and is head of a research group that studies host-bacterium interactions in the gut. Filip Van Immerseel currently has more than 250 scientific papers in international peer-reviewed journals, has written book chapters and edited books on Salmonella and Clostridium perfringens and is a well-known speaker at international events. He is editor of the journal Avian Pathology and involved in many international collaborative research networks, has a dozen patents and has out-licensed multiple gut health solutions to companies. The general approach is always to study host-pathogen or host-bacterium interactions and to collect scientific data on mechanisms of a) the pathogenesis of diseases or b) the protective effects of bacterial strains and bacterial metabolites on gut homeostasis. These data can then be used for rational development of control measures to control pathogen colonization or intestinal disease, including vaccines, feed additives and diagnostic tools.