Education

• BSc with distinction: cum laude, awarded by University College Utrecht, an honours college of Utrecht University in 2018.

Science major, completed Cognitive Neuroscience, Chemistry, Molecular Cell Biology, and Medicine tracks. Gained the ‘Pre-Med’ qualification recognised by research medical doctor master programmes in the Netherlands.

• MSc with distinction: cum laude, awarded by the Molecular Biosciences programme at Heidelberg University in 2021.

Focused in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.

• PhD degree in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology awarded by PSL University, with the speciality in Informatics, the 4th of June, 2025.

Project focused on the development and application of image-processing workflows for characterising membrane morphologies and resolving membrane protein molecular structures from cryo-electron tomography data.

Funded by the EuReCa international PhD programme supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fellow.

Member of l’école doctorale Complexité du Vivant, Sorbonne University.

Research experience

• 09 2021 - 06 2025: PhD project
  • The Physical Chemistry Curie Lab (UMR168), Institut Curie
  • The development and application of image-processing workflows for characterising membrane morphologies and resolving membrane protein molecular structures from cryo-electron tomography data.
  • Thesis title: Automated Image Processing of Membranes and Membrane Proteins in Cryo-Electron Tomography
  • Speciality: Informatics
  • Hosted by the Molecular Microscopy of Membranes team led by Dr. Daniel Lévy
  • Supervised by Dr. Daniel Lévy & Dr. Manuela Dezi
  • Thesis committee members: Prof. Simon Anders, Dr. Mickael Cohen, & Dr. Slavica Jonic
  • Jury members: Prof. José María Carazo & Dr. Irina Gutsche as reviewers, Dr. Charles Kervrann as president of the jury/the representative examiner of PSL University, Prof. Daniel Castaño Díez & Dr. Emmanuelle Quemin as external examiners.
• 03 2020 - 08 2021: Master thesis
  • The Structural and Computational Biology unit, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Heidelberg
  • The development of an image processing pipeline for resolving structures of the Mumps viral capsid in the cellular context by means of in situ cryo-electron tomography.
  • Hosted by the Mahamid group led by Dr. Julia Mahamid
  • Supervised by Dr. Xiaojie Zhang & Dr. Julia Mahamid
  • Examiners: Prof. Rebecca Wade & Prof. Georg Stoecklin
  • Publication: Molecular mechanisms of stress-induced reactivation in mumps virus condensates.
• 01 - 02 2020: Internship
  • Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies
  • Evaluation, improvement and benchmarking of the novel drug-target residence time (τ) estimating molecular dynamics sampling computational method: τ-random acceleration molecular dynamics (τRAMD), used for the ranking of drug candidates according to their τ and gaining insights into ligand-target dissociation mechanisms.
  • Hosted by the Molecular and Cellular Modelling group led by Prof. Rebecca Wade
  • Supervised by Dr. Daria Kokh
  • Publication: A workflow for exploring ligand dissociation from a macromolecule: Efficient random acceleration molecular dynamics simulation and interaction fingerprint analysis of ligand trajectories.
• 09 - 12 2019: Internship
  • Centre for Molecular Biology Heidelberg (ZMBH)
  • Single-cell transcriptomics-based study of the interaction between Sertoli cell and cells of spermatogenesis in the fast-evolving testis across human and animal species. Mentored by Dr. Simon Anders on the development of a novel method for continuous classification of single cells.
  • Hosted by the Kaessmann group led by Prof. Henrik Kaessmann
  • Supervised by Dr. Florent Murat
• 04 - 08 2019: Internship
  • German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ)
  • Electron spray ionisation mass spectrometry-based characterization of proteins in the polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2, a key epigenetic regulator for normal development and various diseases) and investigation of their recruitment in cancer.
  • Hosted by the Division of Proteomics of Stem Cells and Cancer led by Prof. Jeroen Krijgsveld
  • Supervised by Dr. Dimitris Papageorgiou
• 02 - 03 2019: Internship
  • Max Planck Institute for Medical Research
  • Giant unilamellar vesicle-based microfluidics fabrication of uniform human neural co-culture spheroids for high-throughput microplastic neurotoxicity screening, original and independent research project.
  • Hosted by the Department of Cellular Biophysics led by Prof. Joachim Spatz
  • Supervised by PhD candidate Oskar Staufer
• 10 2017 - 08 2018: Bachelor thesis
  • Hubrecht Institute
  • Projects: 1) Induction of the differentiation of gastric endocrine and exocrine cells in human stomach organoids, 2) and Epstein-Barr virus-positive gastric adenocarcinoma modelling with human stomach organoids using genome editing strategies (CRISPR/Cas9 and lentivirus infection).
  • Hosted by the Clevers group led by Prof. Hans Clevers
  • Supervised by Dr. Georg Busslinger
  • Examiner: Dr. Bas Defize
• 07 - 09 2017: Internship
  • Regenerative Medicine Centre Utrecht, University Medical Centre Utrecht
  • Introduced to cell/tissue culture, and confocal imaging with fluorescence-stained hydrogel-based 3D tissue culture for the development of heart-on-a-chip used to investigate patient-specific cardiac remodelling following myocardial infarction. Literature study on the use of nanoparticles for cardiac repair. Selected through the University College Utrecht Alumni Internship program.
  • Supervised by Dr. Tom Bracco Gartner & Dr. Jesper Hjortnaes