Marta de Ruijter-Villani is associate professor at the Department of Clinical Sciences of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University and Researcher at the University Medical Center Utrecht at the division of Woman and Baby. She is a clinical embryologist, head of the Equine ICSI lab, Principal Investigator and Theme leader of the research group “Fertility and Reproduction”.

Her research focuses on understanding the origin of chromosomal instability (CIN) in oocytes and embryos. The main aims of her research are (1) to understand how, in aged females' oocytes, defects at the interface between chromosomes and the cytoskeletal machinery, lead to aneuploidy. (2) to understand the mechanisms that induce chromosome instability in pre-implantation embryos and to study the consequences of CIN during early development. 

Her group is currently looking for highly motivated undergraduate students to start a research project on chromosome segregation errors in oocytes and embryos. If you are interested please send your CV and motivation letter to Dr. Marta de Ruijter-Villani (m.villani@uu.nl).