About me
Originally from Megchelen, the Netherlands (a small village on the German border), I studied Medical Biology at the Radboud University Nijmegen. During my time there I was actively involved in different student associations and teaching, and I have been the student representative on the educational board of Biosciences. My focus has always been on endocrinology, molecular biology and physiology, both in courses and the research projects.
During my master’s I have executed two research projects under the guidance of two great scientists, leading to the wish to further develop myself as a scientist during a PhD programme. For the first project, I went to California to run a project in the lab of Dr. Mark Huising at UC Davis where I studied similarities between pancreatic islet and hypothalamic glucose regulation. My second project was back home in Nijmegen at the Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences in the lab of Dr. Klaas Mulder where I developed a computational analysis toolkit to investigate EGF-signalling after single cell immune-detection by sequencing.
In September 2020, I moved to Stockholm to start a doctoral project in the lab of Dr. Kirsty Spalding at the Karolinska Institute. Here I divide my time between lab work, computational biology and teaching.
Research description
The research of our lab focuses on properties of human adipose tissue, with particular attention to adipocyte biology. Basic functions, such as adipocyte lipid and cell turnover, adipocyte cell biology, adipocyte responses to obesity and hyperinsulinemia, and cellular heterogeneity are investigated. The ultimate aim our lab, is to better understand the contributions of adipocytes to health and pathology.
I have a small, but exciting part in contributing to this aim as I study the browning capacity of different white adipose tissue depots. Browning is a process in which normal fat cells are “reprogrammed” to burn lipid instead of storing it. As such, it is viewed as a potential avenue of treating obesity in the future. This process is well-described in rodents, but information about humans is lacking. I study this process on isolated mature adipocytes, using fluorescence microscopy and other molecular biology techniques.
Teaching portfolio
-Lecturer in the master’s course Bioinformatics (KI, 2021 – present).
-Teaching Assistant in the bachelor’s course Cell-, Stem Cell and Developmental Biology (KI, 2020)
-Developing new (grading) procedures for the research internships of the masters of the Bioscience institute (Radboud University, 2019 – 2020)
-Developing research proposal- and literature review courses for the masters of the Bioscience institute (Radboud University, 2018 – 2019)
-Teaching Assistant in several bachelor’s courses in physiology (Radboud University, 2017 – 2019)
Education
M.Sc. in Medical Biology, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands (2018 – 2020)
B.Sc. in Biology, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands (2014– 2018)
Academic honours, awards and prizes
Prize for “Best M.Sc. thesis of the faculty of Science 2020” at the Radboud University Nijmegen