For about 20 years, my laboratory has been addressing the process by which we turn over billions of cells daily in our human body (‘efferocytosis’). However, there are significant gaps in our knowledge at the mechanistic and whole animal levels.  As efferocytosis is disrupted in many human inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis, colitis, and arthritis, my long-term goal is to continue to dissect the complex process of efferocytosis, and target key efferocytic steps for therapeutic benefit. Since establishing my group at Ghent University (2017), many postdoctoral fellows and PhD students have made key discoveries that have led to their publications in Nature, Nature Communications, Cell Host Microbe, etc. I will continue to address: (i) how the dying cells communicate with the tissue neighbourhood; (ii) how the phagocytes sense the dying cells; (iii) how phagocytes handle the excess metabolic load; and (iv) how we may target specific signaling pathways regulating efferocytosis.