What is the topic of your PhD project and what does your work look like in practice?
In my projects I use the fruitfly, Drosophila Melanogaster, as a model for genetic syndromes with brain disorders including learning and sleep defects and epilepsies. Because flies are so easy to maintain (and hard to get rid of if you have them in your kitchen) it is relatively quick and cheap to look into various syndromes/genes at the same time. In my main project I focus on finding molecular overlap between models with a learning defect for very rare syndromes that might be exploited for common therapy.
In practice, this means that the flies dictate most of my planning. With a lifecycle of roughly 2 weeks, I am constantly running experiments in parallel and switching between breeding/maintaining animals, doing/analyzing experiments, and thinking about what the data is telling us.
What did you want to be when you were younger?
Funny enough, since very young I wanted to become a vet, I wanted to help animals that suffer. I did not end up far from that as I am basically trying to find treatment approaches for my fly models.
What does Donders Institute mean to you?
The Donders Institute has always been appealing to me. I remember I heard about it during high school and already envisioned working there, without knowing where I am now.. Why it has been appealing? I think it must be the aim to understand what makes us who we are. With no borders of faculties/disciplines. As a result, during my studies/PhD it has given me the opportunity to move across disciplines, with experiences ranging from human cognition, clinical care, animal models, artificial intelligence etc.
What does your perfect weekend look like?
The motto I developed during the PhD is: During the week we tire the brain and let the body recover, in the weekends we tire the body and let the brain recover. So, the most important thing in the weekend for me is to go outside and move, whether it is on the bike, running, or on the football fields. Add a music concert in the evening and meeting friends/family over coffee and I am happy!