Scientific background
I moved to the Netherlands in 2008 to follow the Life Sciences program at the Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen. Afterwards, I received a scholarship to join the research master Molecular Mechanisms of Disease at the Radboud University, the Netherlands. During this master study, I performed two internships, one on inherited blindness and the second one on pluripotency of embryonic stem cells. Obtaining the internal Radboudumc PhD grant allowed me to continue the project I worked on during my first master internship, investigating molecular mechanisms underlying a type of inherited blindness termed familial exudative vitreoretinopathy. This work was performed in the group of Prof. Dr. Rob Collin. I defended my thesis in July 2019 and subsequently followed my interest in omics research by joining the lab of Dr. Klaas Mulder as a postdoctoral fellow, investigating therapeutic resistance in head and neck cancer using single cell multi-omics technologies. Currently, I am combining these previous experiences to further test the safety and efficacy of AON-based splice modulation on retinal organoids, with the final goal of bringing this therapy to Stargardt disease patients.
Hobbies outside science
When I am not busy in the lab, I mostly spend my time reading novels and binge-watching on Netflix. I also love food, both cooking them myself as well as trying out different restaurants. I then compensate this hobby by going to the gym and following yoga classes.