Agribusiness Service BV (ABS) is opgericht in maart 2014 om bedrijven in de agrarische sector terzijde te staan met actieve, professionele ondersteuning. ABS biedt laagdrempelige dienstverlening op maat voor een verscheidenheid aan taken binnen de productieketens. De bedrijfsvoering in de agrarische sector is veelal intensief en de wetgeving (bijvoorbeeld rondom voedselveiligheid en certificeren van grondstoffen) vaak te complex om als MKB-bedrijf actief te volgen. ABS biedt hierin de helpende hand met ondersteuning en advies. Als Project coördinator hou ik me voornamelijk bezig met bestuursondersteuning, sectorstatistieken, wetgeving en beleidsvoorbereiding van partijen in de diervoederketen.

Research coordinator Product Board Animal Feed. June 2012 - December 2013.General: Representation of the feed sector. Embedding research projects into the new Top Sector public-private partnership Feed4Foodure. Secretariat for Feed4Foodure. Facilitating the completion and transfer of tasks due to the abolishment of the Product Board. Organizing and participating in consultation between governments and industry.Research coordinator: Assessing the quality and progress of projects aimed at improving feed in consultation with industry R&D representatives. Steering at the level of processes as well as on content, delivering qualitative reports on time. Responsible for a research budget of 1,1 Million €. Examples of research topics are: gut health, vitality and wellbeing, longevity, feed composition, nutrient utilization and environment.

Postdoc: Utrecht University; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine; Department of Farm Animal Health / Infectious Diseases and en Immunology. June 2009 – June 2012.Project: Immuno-epidemiology of Avian Influenza: Tracing immunological correlates of transmission.Experimental vaccinations in chicken in order to stop transmission between animals. Activities: Development of an experimental vaccine with bacterial expression products of viral proteins and synthetic peptides; In vivo influenza infection in chickens; In vitro Influenza infection model on MDCK cells; Flow cytometry / Luminex on blood and spleen cells; immunohistochemistry; Cloning and Bacterial protein expression; Protein isolation and purification; Western blotting; ELISA; PCR and qPCR; DNA / RNA extraction. Experiments conducted in the infection unit of the Central Laboratory Animal Research Facility and in laboratories on ML-2 level.

Postdoc: Erasmus MC: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. May 2008 - June 2009.Project: “Modulation of dendritic cells Reduces inflammation and tumor progression in Barrett's esophagus”. Setting up a diet model to determine the inhibitory effect of dendritic cells in the development of esophageal cancerActivities: Developing a feed model to generate an early stage of esophageal cancer in mice; Isolation of dendritic cells obtained from human esophagus and esophageal biopsies, blood, and spleen cells from mice; Flow cytometry; immunohistochemistry; MACS. Experiments performed in BSL-2 environment.

PhD Student: A.S.G. Lelystad / Utrecht University; Faculty of veterinary medicine; Department of Farm Animal Health . October 2003 - May 2008.Project:” Immuno-epidemiology, ecology and control of coccidial infections in poultry.”Creation of an intestinal infection model with chickens, in order to determine the within host dynamics of the parasite Eimeria, in particular the immune response of the chicken to this parasitic infection Activities: In vivo Eimeria infections in chickens, Flow cytometry; Lymphocyte stimulation assay; immunohistochemistry, PCR and qPCR; cloning; Isolation of parasites; PCR fingerprinting of Eimeria species, DNA / RNA extraction, Micro-array. Work in ISO 9001 certified environment. Short term placement: "Laser micro-dissection," Cordoba University, Spain, April 2007.