Assistant Professor
Strategic program(s):
Biography
I am fascinated by the challenges surrounding efficient, cell-specific delivery of therapeutic biomolecules (mostly RNA). I explore innovative ways to engineer naturally occurring extracellular vesicles (EVs) and synthetic lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to overcome these challenges. I have extensive experience on the isolation and biochemical characterization of EVs and hold a PhD on EV engineering, obtained in the lab of prof. Raymond Schiffelers in the CDL Nanomedicine group (UMCU). During my postdoc I have extended this expertise to LNPs for immunotherapy and in vivo nanoparticle characterization. I currently work as an assistant professor in the Metabolic Diseases Research group (Pediatrics division) in the UMC Utrecht, which is led by prof. Sabine Fuchs and embedded in the Regenerative Medicine Center. As part of the UMCU Gene therapy strategic programme, I aim to use my expertise to accelerate development of RNA delivery systems for various applications in the UMCU, while actively supporting research on gene editing strategies for metabolic diseases in the Fuchs group.
| Grant | Amount (k euro) | |
| 2024 | Open Mind grant from the Applied and Engineering Domain of the NWO (no. 21580): "Transforming RNA biology into RNA therapy" | 50 |
| 2019 |
VENI grant from the Applied and Engineering Domain of the NWO (no. 17296): "Unravelling nature’s communication networks to improve therapeutic RNA delivery" | 250 |
Reviewer grant applications - Reviewen van grant applications, soms tegen vergoeding - Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
