Research interests

Population & landscape genomics - Molecular evolution
Biological and Genomic diversity - Species distribution modelling

Academic experience

• Junior Researcher (joint-PhD candidate) | 2021 - present
  Focus: Co-evolutionary patterns and population dynamics of Leishmania Viannia spp. and Leishmaniavirus 1
  Affiliations:
  Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp (Belgium) – Molecular Parasitology unit
  University of Antwerp (Belgium)
  KU Leuven (Belgium) - Rega Institute for Medical Research – Evolutionary and Computational Virology
  

• Scientific Researcher (PhD candidate) | 2020 - 2021
  Focus: Mechanisms of large internal deletions in HIV proviruses
  Affiliation: AIDS Reference Laboratory at University of Ghent (Belgium)
  Premature ending: Mismatch between research interests and topic
  
  

Teaching experience

• Guest lecturer at University of Antwerp | 2023 - present
  Course: Molecular Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases: Population genomics
  
  
• Teaching Assistant | October 2019
  Course: General research workshop, Centre du Recherche en Hydrobiologie, Uvira (DRC).
  

Education

• Master in Biology | 2018 - 2020
  Specialization: Ecology & Evolution
  Institution: KU Leuven
  

• Bachelor in Biology | 2015 - 2018
  Specialization: Environment & Sustainable Development
  Institution: KU Leuven
  

Additional Courses

EMBO course:

• Computational and Molecular Evolution - May 2023
  

University of Antwerp Workshops:

• Ecology and Evolution of Parasites and infections, 5th Summer workshop - September 2021
  
• Genomic Data analysis - November 2020
  
  

Grants / Awards

• FWO Grant for participation in a conference abroad | 2024
  Awarded for presenting at the 3rd Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology in July 2024 (Montreal, Canada).
  

• Zoetis Travel Grant | 2021
  Awarded after plenary presentation at the annual meeting of the Belgian Society of Parasitology and Protistology (BSPP). Specifically meant for attending the WorldLeish7 conference in August 2022 (Cartagena, Colombia).
  

• VLIR-UOS Travel Grant | 2019
  Awarded after application for a six-week research visit and field work in Uvira, Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2019.
  
  

Supervision / support of MSc. theses

• 2023-2024 - Transcriptional profiling of Leishmania (Viannia) parasites infected with Leishmania RNA virus 1, KU Leuven
  
• 2022-2023 - Selective Whole Genome Amplification as a method for genomic surveillance of Leishmania braziliensis, Institute of Tropical Medicine (Antwerp)
  
• 2021-2022 - Genome diversity of Leishmania aethiopica from Ethiopia, Institute of Tropical Medicine (Antwerp)
  
  

Reviewer for peer-reviewed Journals

• 2024 - Virus Evolution
  
• 2023 - Microbial Genomics
  
• 2022 - American Journal of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene
  

Ambo (Peru) A place known for hybridization between Leishmania braziliensis and L. peruviana (c) S. Heeren (2023)