I coordinate the Dutch EARA twitter account through which I share important local and international news as well as general information about animal research. This with the goal to raise the awareness around the use of animals in research.

At the department of Women's and Children's Health I worked on research into the interaction between astrocytes and microglia in the juvenile brain. Children who receive radiotherapy for the treatment of a brain tumour often experience chronic or progressive cognitive decline later in life. I was involved in a study focussing on the role of astrocytes, microglia and their crosstalk after cranial radiotherapy and its role in causing this cognitive impairment. To be more specific, we have been looking at astrocyte and microglia activation and the production of inflammatory cytokines in different brain regions using immunohistochemistry, ELISA and PCR, both in vitro and in vivo.

Subjects: Mathematics, chemistry, physics and biology

The Library Committee gives advise on everything related to the faculty library, e.g. the collection, learning spaces, the virtual learning environment.

The Management Team (MT) is one of the executive committees in the organization of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (FHML). Its main task is to discuss how the education and everything that is concerned with it functions (organizational, financial issues, etc). If a problem occurs, the MT will provide a solution or asks a gremia like the Education Committee for advice to make a well-considered decision on which direction should be followed to remedy the problem.

The Student Council Health and Life Sciences is the strategic meeting of all student representatives within the domains Health Sciences, Biomedical Sciences and European Public Health of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences. In weekly meetings, current debates in the different committees and the position the SC takes is discussed. We participate in university politics and decision-making at different levels: on the level of education, on the level of the faculty and on university level. A student gets a seat in the Student Council by being selected for one of the gremia (committees).