Since secondary school, I have been fascinated by the remarkable chemical diversity found in nature and its potential to drive innovation in materials, food preservation, and disease control. This passion led me to specialize in organic chemistry during my MSc at Wageningen University, the Netherlands, where I graduated in 2002.

After completing my PhD on the design and synthesis of radiolabeled peptides for tumor detection, I continued in 2006 as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Nuclear Medicine and Chemistry, Technical University of Munich, Germany. My work contributed to the clinical approval of [68Ga]Pentixafor and [68Ga]RGD2 for noninvasive PET imaging of tumors and metastases. In 2010, I was honored with the award for the most cited paper in the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine (EJNM).

In 2011, I joined the Department of Biochemistry at Maastricht University, where I initiated research on structure-activity relationships (SAR) of exogenous proteins. During a Fulbright Senior Scholarship at The Scripps Research Institute (2014), I studied how chemokine proteins interact with each other using biophysical techniques. Following an NWO-Vidi grant, I established my own research group, focusing on SAR studies of tick proteins. In 2018, I was awarded an NWO-ECHO grant, supporting research on tick anticoagulants, platelet aggregation inhibitors, and immunomodulatory polypeptides. My team combines in vitro and in vivo functional studies with structural characterization (e.g., NMR) to unravel molecular mechanisms and identify potential therapeutic leads. Alongside this research, I am pursuing the development of a broadly applicable anti-tick vaccine to reduce the socio-economic impact of tick-borne diseases.

My commitment to improving human and animal health and welfare extends beyond the laboratory. In 2019, I volunteered at a chimpanzee orphanage in Zambia, and in 2024, participated in conservation work at a rhinoceros orphanage in South Africa. These experiences have reinforced my dedication to translating scientific knowledge into solutions that benefit both humans and animals.

I actively promote science communication and education, regularly giving lectures to secondary school students. In 2024, I successfully led a fundraising initiative that enabled the purchase of practical laboratory equipment for students at the Anton de Kom University in Paramaribo, where I also taught both lectures and hands-on practical sessions. I serve on the board of the Netherlands Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (NVBMB) and as a board member (chair from 2025) of the Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology division of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV), contributing to the organization of national scientific meetings such as the MCCB Spring Symposium and the NWO Chemistry of Life Community