Harold MacGillavry studied Medical Biology at the University of Amsterdam, and obtained his PhD (2010) at VU University Amsterdam with Dr. Ronald van Kesteren, Prof. Dr. Guus Smit, and Prof. Dr. Joost Verhaagen. He then joined the lab of Dr. Tom Blanpied at the University of Maryland Baltimore (2010 – 2014). Here, he used live-cell, single-molecule imaging approaches to study the dynamic organization of neurotransmitter receptors and structural proteins at neuronal excitatory synapses. He demonstrated for the first time that the organization of proteins within individual synapses is highly non-uniform, with receptors and receptor-interacting proteins accumulating in distinct subsynaptic nanodomains. In 2013, he received an ALW-VENI grant from NWO and a Return-to-Europe fellowship from FEBS. He then joined the Cell Biology department at Utrecht University in 2014. Here, he investigates molecular mechanisms that control synaptic transmission. In 2016 he received a NARSAD Young Investigator Award, and a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).