After my Master’s in Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences at Utrecht University, I joined Prof. Christine Goffinet’s group in 2021 to research HIV at the Institute of Virology of the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Following Christine, I relocated to Liverpool to continue my PhD at the department of Tropical Disease Biology at LSTM in September this year.
My research focusses on studying innate immunity in the context of HIV-1 infection and latency. As a part of this, I am investigating the effect that various host factors have on the different elements of the viral life cycle of HIV-1. Secondly, I study the contribution of non-integrated HIV-1 DNAs to viral persistence, also referred to as pre-integration latency. Gaining a better understanding of how cells respond to HIV-1 infection and how viral persistence is achieved in the face of long-term antiretroviral therapy is crucial for the development of HIV-1 cure strategies. Methods I have experience with include flow cytometry, cryo-electron microscopy, single particle analysis and standard molecular biology techniques.