Marjon de Vos – PI

I am an assistant professor at GELIFES at University of Groningen (The Netherlands) where I investigate the ecology and evolution of bacteria derived from polymicrobial (infectious) ecosystems, and antibiotic resistance.

I teach and coordinate part of the BSc and MSc courses on Evolutionary Medicine and Microbiome.

Additionally, I am vice-chair of The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) core committee Health Protection (Gezondheidsbescherming); Infectious Diseases, Antibiotic Resistance and Pandemic Preparedness, Coordinator of the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health FSE Hub – Fundamental Science for Health and Environment, member of the scientific steering committee of the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health, and member of the International Advisory Board of The Lancet Microbe.

Past

As a NWO VENI postdoctoral fellow at the laboratory of Genetics at Wageningen University I investigated the evolution of antibiotic resistance and microbe-microbe interactions in polymicrobial infections.

During my postdoc in the Biophysics and Systems Biology group at IST Austria (group moved to Cologne) I worked on microbial interactions in bacterial communities derived from patients suffering from urinary tract infections, and antibiotic resistance.

During my PhD in the Biophysics group at AMOLF I studied genetic and environmental interactions that determine the course of evolution. The results were described using the fitness landscape metaphor.

Yvonne van Katwijck – Secretariat 

Email: y.m.van.katwijck@rug.nl

Tel: +31 50 36 37652

Jolanda Brons – Technician

Email: J.K.Brons[at]rug.nl

Tel: +31 50 36 32191

I have been a molecular biology research technician at the University of Groningen since 2001.

My role within the group is quite diverse, next to supporting the group, running the lab and performing field work I also have my own research projects.

In my current research project I am focusing on virulence genes in E. coli in urinary tract infections.

Lars Zandbergen – PhD student

Email: L.E.Zandbergen[at]rug.nl

I am a PhD student at GELIFES at the University of Groningen since December 2018. My project is about the ecology and evolution of infectious ecosystems with a focus on bacterial interactions and antibiotic resistance development of bacteria from the urinary tract.
I started investigating bacterial interactions of urinary tract bacteria at the laboratory of Genetics at Wageningen University for my final thesis of my MSc degree. During my MSc I also worked on identifying a novel bacteriocin from Enterococcus species to inhibit the growth of pathogenic Enterococcus bacteria at the UMC Utrecht.

Part of the project is in collaboration with Alan J. Wolfe, Loyola University Chicago, US. Part of the project is in collaboration with Oscar Kuipers, Groningen. Part of the project is in collaboration with Alan McNally, IMI Birmingham, UK.

Misshelle Bustamante – PhD Student

Email:

I come from Ecuador. I studied Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology during my MSc. I did my thesis on the role of HGT in the evolution of microbial metabolism. My research interest since then has been in microbial evolution. Now I am a PhD student in the Adaptive Life research theme at GELIFES and I study the role of eco-evolutionary interactions on the spread of antimicrobial resistance by means of HGT in pathogenic microbial communities.

The project is a collaboration with Oscar Kuipers, Sander van Doorn and Franjo Weissing in Groningen, and Alvaro San Millan (Madrid, Spain). PhD student Ines Daras, and an MSc student are involved in the theoretical part of the project.

Freya Darling Eriksen – PhD student

I am a PhD student in GELIFES investigating the eco-evolutionary dynamics of urinary tract infections (UTIs). My project aims to better understand the underlying drivers of UTIs by focusing on the role of bacterial community interactions on uropathogenic growth and diversification.

I am originally from California (USA), and my background is primarily in wildlife ecology and evolutionary biology. I earned my MSc from the MEME Evolutionary Biology program and completed thesis projects at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) and Uppsala University (Sweden). My interest in microbial community dynamics began during my MSc project in Groningen, where I investigated higher-order interactions of uropathogenic bacteria.

My project is co-supervised by Rampal Etienne (University of Groningen) and Marnix Medema (Wageningen University). My PhD is also a part of the ENW-XL consortium project ‘Urinary Tract Infections Revisited: Microbial Eco-evolutionary Drivers and Regulators’ (UTIr).

Pablo Gallardo – postdoc Working on the UTIr project. Co-supervised by Alan Wolfe (Loyola Chicago).

Corné van der Zeeuw – BSc Hanze student Working with Freya on the UTIr project.

Past members

Karla Müller – MSc student, Erasmus Mundus Precision Medicine. Worked with Misshelle Bustamante on urosepsis isolates. A project in collaboration with Axel Hamprecht (Oldenburg, DE).

Floor Koopman – MSc Student. Worked with Misshelle Bustamante on HGT in UTI-related bacterial communities.

Tymo Ijedema – van Hall BSc student. Worked with Misshelle Bustamante on urosepsis isolates. A project in collaboration with Axel Hamprecht (Oldenburg, DE).

Si Nguyen Mai – Ecology and Evolution MSc student. Worked on a computational project on bacterial interactions limiting disease, with Chris Barnes and Neythen Treloar (UCL, UK).

Freya Darling Eriksen – MSc MEME student. Worked with Lars Zandbergen on higher-order ecological interactions in urinary bacteria.

Jesper Mertens – MSc Biomedical Sciences student. Worked with Misshelle Bustamante on HGT in UTI-related bacterial communities.

Ivi Koffie – Internship Student (Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences)

Noor van Bree – Internship Student (Hanze University of Applied Sciences)

Jaimy Ernsten – Internship Student (Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences)

Afra Salazar de Dios – MSc MEME student

Lisanne Zoethout – Internship Student (Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences)

Isabelle van der Windt – Internship Student (Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences)