Story

My mosquito adventure already started at high school with a project about malaria mosquitoes. After high school I went to Zambia and saw the impact that mosquito-borne diseases have on communities. That’s the moment I knew I wanted to work in this field. During my biology studies at Wageningen University & Research I looked if malaria mosquitoes could be attracted by primates, if malaria infected mosquitoes have a different sense of smell, and I collected over 4.000 yellow fever mosquitoes in Paramaribo, Suriname. During my studies I got the possibility to write a PhD project with my co-promotor Dhr. Sander Koenraadt, and that’s where I’m at now.

The overall objective of my PhD is to unravel the effect of arboviral infection on the behaviour and physiology of mosquitoes. We use a model system using Aedes aegypti and several arboviruses like Zika and chikungunya. The study will among others take place in our unique Biological Safety Level 3 facility where we can let infected mosquitoes fly in a behavioural set-up. Outside the lab I‘m involved in the PhD council of my graduate school PE&RC and in my free time I love to blog, cook, bake and do food photography. Moreover I made this website!

Collaborators

Since I work with mosquitoes and viruses, I collaborate closely with my co-promotor Gorben Pijlman and his group members at the Laboratory of Virology, Wageningen University and Research.