I’m a chronobiologist, fascinated by the impact of the circadian timing system on human health and disease. It is my mission to use our knowledge of the circadian system to improve health care: from optimizing the timing of drug administration to creating healthier hospitals environments that are in sync with patients’ circadian clocks.
In March 2023, I was appointed as assistant professor and junior research group leader at the Leiden University Medical Center in Leiden (the Netherlands). In 2022, I received the Heineken Young Scientists Award from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). In 2020, I received a Veni grant from ZonMw for my project titled ‘It’s about time: strengthening human circadian clock function in critical illness’. In addition, I am the co-initiator and coordinator of the BioClock Consortium, a national network of researchers and societal partners that aims to restore and preserve the health of the biological clock in modern society, which was awarded 10 million euros funding from NWO in 2021. Besides my research, I have a longstanding interest in reproducible data analysis workflows, programming in R, and science communication & outreach (see Resources). When not doing science, you can find me outdoors, most likely running, cycling, swimming, gardening, or hiking and camping.
From 2016 – 2019, I was a postdoctoral fellow in the groups of Dr. Diane B. Boivin and Dr. Nicolas Cermakian at the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal (Canada), studying the effects of circadian disruption on human physiology, including the transcriptome and metabolome. I also investigated the effect of rotating shift work on sleep, food intake, and performance in a population of police officers on patrol. From 2012 – 2017, I did my PhD at the University of Leiden (the Netherlands) on the 24-hour rhythms in the exposure and effect of drug treatments. I received my MSc in Neuroscience from University College London (England) in 2011 and my BSc in Biomedical Sciences from University College Utrecht (the Netherlands) in 2010. In 2009, I spent an exchange semester at Monash University in Melbourne (Australia).
Circadian Medicine Group 