Story
During my Bachelor Biology at the University of Wageningen, I discovered vector activity. How can such small creatures cause such devastating diseases in humans? Throughout my MSc, I focused on mosquitoes and the transmission of malaria between non-human primates. Besides the vector, I became also interested in viruses that are transmitted by arthropods. The mechanism behind the transmission of them by arthropods still fascinates me every day.
From mosquitoes, I started my PhD project on ticks and tick-borne encephalitis (TBEV). The overall goal of my project is to untangle the interactions between TBEV, ticks and vertebrate hosts. Setting-up a vector competence assay for ticks at our BSL3 facility, studying TBEV transmission from rodent to ticks and understanding the effect of TBEV on tick-behavior is all part of my PhD project.
Outside the lab, I coach rowers. Being a rower has for long been my daily life, and I’m happy that I now can share my knowledge obtained from my rowing career to train new rowing champions!
Julian Bakker, MSc