I am an international biomedical researcher with a focus on advanced disease modelling. After pursuing my Applied Medical Sciences bachelors in the United Kingdom I continued my academic journey in Leiden, where I got my master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences. Now I am pursuing my PhD in the Department of Physiology at Amsterdam UMC.

My PhD project aims to develop a novel muscle-in-a-dish model to study the effects of muscle microenvironment on muscle metabolism and contractile function. We want to study this because skeletal muscle is a key tissue regulating glucose metabolism and is affected in type 2 diabetes contributing to impaired glucose uptake. We aim to use the model to understand how endothelial cells lining the vasculature and the fat surrounding them can impact the muscle glucose metabolism, its contractility and mitochondrial function. Understanding these pathways will allow in the future to create therapies alleviating the symptoms or preventing the disease.