Judith van den Brand is an associate professor and veterinary pathologist at the Division of Pathology in the Department of Biomolecular Health Sciences of the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She also is the director of the Dutch Wildlife Health Centre. She is currently working on (emerging) zoonotic (viral) diseases such as Usutuvirus, West Nile virus, Coronavirus, Influenza virus, Lyssavirus and Bornavirus, with the focus on wildlife and is interested in the role of co-infections on the outcome of disease. She is involved as a consultant in the research on development of vaccines and antivirals against COVID-19 and in several projects on COVID-19.
In 2007 she became a board certified European veterinary pathologist (European College of Veterinary Pathologists, ECVP) and completed her PhD in 2013 under the supervision of Prof. Thijs Kuiken, Prof. Albert Osterhaus and Dr. Bart Haagmans at the Dept. Viroscience at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with a dissertation on experimental SARS and influenza: similar disease, different pathways. During and after her PhD she studied the pathogenesis of emerging infectious diseases such as SARS, MERS and influenza and participated in European, WHO, NIH and other (inter) national projects (among which Antigone, Aditec, Emperie, Compare, Asklepios, Virgo and ZAPI). She regularly publishes peer-reviewed scientific articles in many high-standard journals including Science and Nature. As a veterinary pathologist she is trained to work with various species of experimental animals (including wild animal species such as ducks) and is qualified to work under Biosafety Level 3+ levels.
Currently, she is highly involved in the revision of the master's program Veterinary Medicine as member of the curriculum implementation team and former educational manager (Portefeuillehouder Onderwijs) and member of the departmental board (2020-2022) from the Department of Biomolecular Health Sciences. She is secretary of the board of the Veterinary section of the Dutch society of pathologists (NVVP) and president of the board of the Dutch Society of Wildlife Health (DSWH). She is involved in the organization of scientific national and international conferences. In 2016 she was selected for the Erasmus MC female career development program in Rotterdam and in 2018 she was selected for the Westerdijk Program at the Utrecht University. Until 2020 she was member of the Exam-Committee of the European College of Veterinary Pathologists (ECVP) for 6 years. She is currently involved in teaching of bachelor and master-students, residents and pathologists.
She is working on (emerging) zoonotic (viral) diseases such as Usutuvirus, West Nile virus, Coronavirus, Influenza virus, Lyssavirus and Bornavirus, with the focus on wildlife and is interested in the role of co-infections on the outcome of disease. She is involved in the NWA-ORC project “One Health PACT” (Predicting Arboviruses Climate Tipping points) within the National Centre for One Health (NCOH) together with many institutes about how demographic, climatological, ecological, and planological changes will impact the risk of Vector-borne diseases-emergence for the Netherlands. She was involved in several projects within several national and international collaborations such as the project funded by LNV, “Fighting COVID-19 in animals and humans” and the ZonMW project "Zoonoses in the Night". Additionally, she is heavily involved as a consultant in the research on development of vaccines and antivirals against COVID-19, Influenza viruses and RSV.