Research
My research focuses on pathogenic bacteria, in particular Clostridioides difficile and Staphylococcus aureus. I am also interested exploring the use of live biotherapeutic products, including anaerobic bacteria, as possible interventions.
Within the Center for Microbiota Analyses and Therapeutics (CMAT), we study all aspects of the complex role of the microbiota in health and disease.
For C. difficile I am closely involved with the Dutch National Expertise Center for C. difficile infections, a collaboration between the LUMC and the Center of Infectious Disease Control of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. A major focus in my research is the characterization of the multi-protein machinery responsible for DNA replication, and the response of bacteria to environmental stresses (including sub-inhibitory and inhibitory concentrations of antimicrobial compounds). In recent years, my team has for instance identified novel mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance and uncovered a role for plasmids in C. difficile.
Our work is highly cross-displinary (genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry) and increasingly involves translational aspects. Most recently, I have become interested in the use of a controlled human colonization and infection models for the study of bacterial infectious diseases.
My research is supported by for instance grants from the European Union, the Dutch Research Council (NWO), Health~Holland, the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), and Leiden University Fund (LUF).
Curriculum vitae
I studied Biology at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Groningen (Groningen, The Netherlands). During my PhD at the same institute I studied bacterial gene regulation in Bacillus subtilis in the laboratory of prof. O.P. Kuipers.
Following my PhD I performed postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge MA, USA) under the guidance of prof. A.D. Grossman. Here, I studied DNA replication of Bacillus subtilis using biochemical and omics techniques.
After my postdoctoral research, I joined the Leiden University Medical Center, in the group of Prof. E.J. Kuijper. Here, I developed my own line of research focusing on the Gram-positive enteropathogen Clostridioides difficile.
Currently, I head the research group Experimental Bacteriology and the Center of Microbiome Analyses and Therapeutics.
I am a member of the steering committee of the International Conference on the Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis of Clostridia, and Education Officer for the ESCMID Study Group on Clostridioides difficile.
Links
Google Scholar
Lab website
Bluesky
LinkedIn
orcid.org/0000-0002-7409-2847
