Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) infections are a leading cause of diarrhea in piglets, resulting in substantial economic losses for the swine industry. Oral subunit vaccines to protect piglets against ETEC infections are currently lacking mainly due to an incomplete understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of ETEC as well as the challenges inherent to oral subunit vaccine design. Our research aims to further unravel the interactions of ETEC and its virulence factors with the gut tissues. The obtained findings will then be used to investigate the further development of oral subunit vaccines protecting piglets against ETEC infections. These oral vaccines will make use of our gut delivery technology platform, which is based on antibody-mediated targeting of antigens to the transport protein aminopeptidase N present on the gut epithelium.