I am a computational immunologist with unique expertise in the fields of immunology, mathematical modelling, and bioinformatics. I develop state-ofthe-art methods to understand the differences between the immune responses in healthy individuals and patients with autoimmune diseases, with the goal to pave the way towards personalized medicine for immune mediated diseases. I use bioinformatics and machine learning methods to study molecular and cellular networks, integrate multi-omic data, and stratify patients based on their immune profiles to predict response to therapies and to discover novel drug targets. I believe that immunology is undergoing a transformation towards more quantitative research, which requires an interdisciplinary approach. To address fundamental immunological questions, we require close collaboration between clinical, experimental, and computational researchers. With >10 years of experience, I have learned to speak the language of immunologists, clinicians, and bioinformaticians. This puts me in the unique position to initiate collaborations, realize translational implications and lead interdisciplinary research teams, to play a key role in the upcoming field of computational and systems immunology.
I was one of the three bioinformatics experts for EULAR’s (European League Against Rheumatism) multidisciplinary guidelines task force for the use of “big” data in rheumatology. I implement these guidelines in my own research, by publishing open access articles, bioinformatic pipelines and datasets. I am a founding member of EULAR’s study group on big data to steer policy making and develop guidelines for Europe-wide data-centric research in rheumatology.
I also believe it is important to train successful future scientists and leaders. I was Assistant Professor and Group Leader at University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands from 2017 to 2022. I have supervised 8 PhD students, >15 Master students, 1 postdoc, 1 teaching staff member and 2
bioinformatic technicians. I have published several corresponding/senior author publications, demonstrating my leadership skills and independence.
Currently, I am working in Immunology Discovery at AbbVie where I am heading two groups comprising of 14 experimental and computational
scientists, who are all working on developing and applying cutting-edge technologies and bioinformatic tools to accelerate drug target discovery.