Science
- Peripheral Neuropathy Group
University of Antwerp
Education
BSc Biomedical Sciences, Karel-de-Grote
Hogeschool Hoboken, 2006
FELASA category B, Katholieke Hogeschool
Kempen Geel, 2007
Expertise:
After my studies as a
Professional Bachelor in Biomedical sciences, I started my career in a
pharmaceutical company as a research technician in research and development. I
learned about the development of drugs, how to screen compounds on activity,
using cellular models. During my young career, I realised how important in vivo
research is and I subscribed to the FELASA category B course of which I
obtained a certificate. After one year,
I have decided to continue in fundamental research and I started to work at VIB
Molecular Genetics in Antwerp. Here I continued as a lab technician in a
research group, immersing myself in the molecular cell biology of peripheral
neuropathies. As a backbone of this group, I master all in house techniques, I perform complex experiments to support
scientific personnel, I guide other technicians and students and I assure
good organisation of the lab. The research field I’m working in, is
Charcot-Marie-Tooth-Disease, particularly the subtypes caused by mutations in
the small Heat Shock Proteins B1 and B8. One day, I hope, the Peripheral Neuropathy Group will
realise a therapy for patients with these diseases.
In house techniques:
-
Cloning techniques
o In
vitro mutagenesis
o Gateway®
o Classical
cloning techniques
-
DNA techniques
o Isolation from diverse samples
o PCR
o Sequencing
-
RNA techniques
o Isolation
from tissue/cells
o RT-qPCR
-
Protein techniques:
o
Protein
isolation from tissues and cells
o Western
Blotting,
o (Co-)immunoprecipitation
o Immunocytochemistry
o Immunohistochemistry
o Biochemical
testing
- Cell culturing techniques: Overall responsible cell lab
o
Isolation of
primary neuronal and non-neuronal cells
o
Maintenance of
different cell lines and primary cultures
o
Production and
maintenance of stable cell lines
o Transient
transfections
o Viral
transductions
o iPSC
o Cryostock database maintenance
-
Animal modeling:
o
Maintentance
mice colonies (breeding, weaning, updating database …)
o Genotyping
genetically altered lines
o Dissecting
tissues
o Generating
mef cell lines