Career and research interests

I trained for Veterinary Pathology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, and acquired my European certificate in 2013.

During the training I had the opportunity to increase wildlife research skills by studying marine mammals, and working for the Dutch Wildlife Health Centre.

Currently, my main interest is unravelling how disease develops for emerging viral infections. A better understanding of how disease develops can help to prevent and cure disease. During my PhD I compared viral pathogenesis between humans and bats, and studied how this can help to understand the disease in humans better.

More precisely I focus on intra- and inter- host dynamics of bat viruses in the Netherlands.

In addition, I study the spread of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza viruses in wild birds and I assist and advice colleagues involved in pathogenesis studies.

Vieuw all my publications on Pubmed

Regular teacher for the Master Infection and Immunity at EMC;

Invited teacher for the master Veterinary Medicine.

1. Member of the Wildlife OFFLU working group;
2. Member of the Committee for further training and development for the Dutch Society for Pathology (Commissie bij- en nascholing van Nederlandse Vereniging Voor Pathologie);
3. Secretary of the Sustainability Committee of the European Wildlife Disease Association; member of the biomedical Green Team of EMC.

Worked and working for various Dutch and European grants, including ANTIGONE, COMPARE, Zoonoses in the night, Viruses in the night and Kappaflu.

I aim to live and work more sustainably, because I am concerned that our current unsustainable trends will strongly effect life in the near future.