Manouk Vrieling is a Researcher of Molecular Microbiology at the Wageningen Bioveterinary Research. She obtained her veterinary degree from Utrecht University in 2012, followed by a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at the University Medical Center Utrecht in 2016. During her PhD, she studied the species specificity of staphylococcal toxins (leukocidins) and investigated their potential as vaccine targets for bovine Staphylococcus aureus mastitis. In 2017, she worked as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at The Roslin Institute. Here, she studied the pathogenesis, evolution and niche adaptation of S. aureus using a combination of lab-based techniques and whole-genome sequencing. She joined Wageningen Bioveterinary Research in the summer of 2019 as a Molecular Microbiology Researcher. She is particularly interested in how bacteria adapt to novel environments and interact with the immune system of their host(s). Her research at WBVR will focus on host–pathogen interactions in Streptococcus suis infections. The major aim of her research is to unravel the strategies S. suis employs to become pathogenic and cause invasive disease in pigs.
Jerry M. Wells is a Professor and Chair of Host-Microbe Interactomics at Wageningen University. He graduated from Gonville & Caius College in the University of Cambridge with a PhD and obtained a Masters in Business Administration (with distinction) from the University of Nottingham, UK in 2004. He has previously received awards and held appointments including the Max Planck Fellowship (MPI für Biochimie, Munich), Merck Post-Doctoral Fellowship, BBSRC Advanced Fellowship (University of Cambridge) and Sainsbury Life Sciences Management Fellowship. In 1993 he was the co-founder of a spin-out company, Microbial Technics Ltd., established at the University of Cambridge. Together with Dr. Le Page, he established the Cortecs Centre for Vaccine Discovery at the University of Cambridge and was a co-director of the Centre from 1996 to 2000. In 2000, he took up a new position at the Institute of Food Research where he was Head of the Bacterial Infection & Immunity research group and Deputy Head of the Food Safety Department. At the end of 2007, he was appointed as a full Professor at The University of Wageningen, as the Chair of the Host-Microbe Interactions Group. He has been a tutor and lecturer at the University of Cambridge and the University of Wageningen and has over 20 years of research experience. His major research interests are in the field of host–microbial interactions, mucosal immunology, bacterial infection and immunity, and intestinal-health-related research.
Rik L. de Swart graduated as a biologist in 1990, obtained his PhD in 1995, and established his research group at the Department of Viroscience at the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. Since 2001, he has been a workgroup leader at the Erasmus MC department of Viroscience. He became an Associate Professor in 2019 and obtained ius promovendi in 2022. Since May 2021, he has been employed as a virologist at Wageningen Bioveterinary Research in Lelystad (0.8 FTE) but also remains affiliated as an associate professor at the Erasmus MC (0.2 FTE). At WBVR, he is involved in projects focusing on the pathogenesis of animal morbilliviruses (e.g., Peste des Petits Ruminants Virus, PPRV) and pneumoviruses (e.g., Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus, BRSV). In addition, he is involved in the Next Level Animal Sciences project on Complex Cell Systems and the ERRAZE@WUR project. At Erasmus MC, his research focuses on dissecting the pathogenesis of morbilliviruses (in particular, measles virus and canine distemper virus) and pneumoviruses (in particular, human respiratory syncytial virus and human metapneumovirus), zooming in on the interactions between these viruses and the host immune system.
