Brief history

I obtained my bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry/Biotechnology in 2000 at the Enschede University College. Thereafter I moved to Wageningen University where I obtained my master’s degree in Plant Biotechnology/Genetics in 2002 while working as a technician at Plant Research International. In 2003 I became a phd-student at the department of Plant Ecophysiology of Utrecht University in the group of Rens Voesenek and worked on the quantitative genetics of gene expression and leaf movement in Arabidopsis. I returned to Wageningen in 2007 when I started working on quantitative genetics of C. elegans as a postdoc at the laboratory of Nematology in the group of Jan Kammenga. In 2009 I successfully defended my thesis at Utrecht University. In 2013 I started working as a researcher at the NIOO, Terrestrial Ecology department of Wim van der Putten, in combination with a continued position as a researcher in the C. elegans group at the WUR. In 2017 i started as a senior researcher at the chairgroups of Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics of Utrecht University in the chairgroup of Berend Snel. In 2020 I became assistant professor and PI of the systems genetics and network biology lab at the same chairgroup.

Research projects

@ UU

LettuceKnow

A TTW Perspective Grant headed by Guido van de Ackerveken on the science based improvement of Lettuce, in which we aim to establish Lettuce as a model crop. My primary role in this project is in quantitative genetics , investigating the genetic polymorphisms underlying phenotypic variation in Lettuce. Furthermore I’m involved in Phenomics, big data and Machine Learning. Link 

@ NIOO-KNAW

Ecosystems of the future. [Finished]

An ERC Advanced Grant has been awarded to Wim van der Putten to study species range shifts, aboveground-belowground community reassembly and consequences for ecosystem functioning. The project has started in June 2013 and will run until June 2018. It will be elucidated how terrestrial communities of plants and their belowground and aboveground multitrophic interactions become assembled following climate warming-induced range shifts. Due to climate warming, plants, animals and microbes shift from lower to higher latitudes and altitudes. Plants may shift range independent of the aboveground and belowground community from their home range. However, little is known about how these communities re-assemble in the new range and how that process influences community dynamics and ecosystem functioning. Besides plants, this project will focus on soil biota (nematodes, pathogens, decomposers, mycorrhizal fungi, viruses and their antagonists), and on aboveground biota (insects, pathogens, viruses and their antagonists). The results will contribute to enhanced predictions on consequences of climate warming for the stability and resilience of ecosystem functioning.

@Wageningen University

The transcriptional regulation of life-history trade-offs in wild C. elegans populations in different thermal environments. [Finished]

Many species adapt to changing thermal environments by tuning their life-histories in favour of fitness maximization. But the options are constrained by trade-offs such as increasing offspring number at the cost of survivorship. We will search for trade-offs between traits in different environments and aim to identify the gene transcription regulation underlying these trade-offs using gene expression-QTL (eQTL) mapping and RNA-seq technologies.Link

NEMADAPT - Molecular architecture of environmental adaptation in natural populations of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. [Finished]

Almost all species adapt their life-history or behaviour in the face of continuous environmental challenges. Two distinct adaptive responses can be favoured under these condtions: a phenotypic plastic response and an evolutionary response. In case of a phenotypic plastic response, selection favoured the ability of individuals to adapt by adjusting metabolic processes or specific behaviours. By taking advantage of the model C. elegans we are the first to combine phenotypic screens, association mapping and RNAi-mediated gene validation and unravel the molecular architecture of adaptation in natural populations.Link

GRAPPLE - Iterative modelling of gene regulatory interactions underlying stress, disease and ageing in C. elegans. [Finished]

Understanding the regulatory control of some biomedically important phenotypes at the level of genes is problematic. We propose to use the expression QTL (eQTL) technique to define gene regulatory interactions on the genomic scale. We focus on thermally adaptive phenotypes of C. elegans that are very clearcut and reproducible, and which show great variations across the set of RILs. The thermal stress response and adaptation is highly correlated with resistance to numerous other environmental stresses, pathogen resistance and lifespan extension. Our network will provide a foundation for understanding these biomedically relevant traits.Link

PANACEA - What makes some genes take the cancer route? [Finished]

Cancer and diseases of the blood are responsible for some 60% of deaths in the adult population. Researchers are clearly hard pressed to find out more about the genetic basis of such complex diseases. Increasingly, research shows that genetic background plays a major role in the development of complex diseases. However, what exactly takes place when normal gene transfers go awry? The 'Quantitative pathway analysis of natural variation in complex disease signalling in C. elegans' (PANACEA) project is filling in knowledge gaps on the genetic processes underlying the mutation of modifiers along signalling pathways. PANACEA aims to discover how genetic background can affect complex disease signalling pathways, and if it is possible to predict the effect of the genetic background on these pathways.Link