Profile

I grew up in the Netherland and did my undergraduate degree there as well. My degree was in life sciences, focusing on biotechnology. The Dutch universities are very different to the UK. Education was very much about combining studying with hobbies. So, I did everything from mentoring first-years, organising parties and trying out different styles of dancing to building financial systems for our student society. This mentality of  combining work and play is something I still do! So I could spend one day working very late and the next day heading out to the theatre with my friends to see the newest musical!

After my undergraduate, I lived in London for a year to do my MSc in Applied Biosciences. This is where I got into food from all over the world and musicals. I was an absolute pro at getting cheap theatre tickets!

For the last few years, I have worked in Oxford and to me there is no place like it. It feels like a village but is still close to London. Here, I got into hiking and long walks. My absolute favourite spot is Blenheim Palace! Recently, I’ve been trying running and even got to run the 7K across Blenheim and this summer, I’ll be trying my first half marathon!

We’ve learnt a lot in the past few years about how important vaccines are. We have also learnt what we are looking for in a good vaccine! We need to be able to make them very quickly, we want them to be stable at room temperature and we don’t want to be jabbed with a needle!

So, the vaccines I make are based on DNA. These are very similar to the RNA vaccines by Pfizer, expect DNA is a lot more stable. This means DNA can be transported at room temperature. However, DNA vaccines typically work less well then RNA vaccines – so this is what I am trying to solve.

The second part of my project focussing on getting rid of needles. Normally, a vaccine goes into your  muscle, but there are not a lot of immune cells there. Your skin, however, is full of them! Using bubbles and sound (google cavitation if you’re curious!), we can make tiny punctures in the top layer of your skin and the vaccines goes through those. As we are only in the very top of your skin, we don’t hit nerves and that’s why it doesn’t hurt. We can also use less vaccine/dose, as there are so much more immune cells.

A typical day doesn’t really exist! Every day is different in research!

So one day, I might be analysing antibodies, another day I might be making my own protein. Sometimes, I am spending the day coding to understand more about the underlying mechanisms in my research.

Some days are just about telling people about all the exciting things I have discovered.

There is loads of flexibility and I really get to decide what I think is important and how my day is best spent.