Projects

Host-associated microbiomes relate to the microbiota that live inside and on the surfaces of hosts. The microbial community is not a random collection of organisms but is the result of complex interactions between microbiota within the host and between the host and the microbiota. These interactions are mediated by host physiology and environmental factors. The host-associated microbiota is currently considered as a novel factor in host ...

Maize (Zea mays L.) has over the years become an important crop in the Nigerian Savannas including the semi-arid Sudan Savanna zone where production was initially not feasible. The annual maize output in the country changed from 1.06 million tonnes in 1976 to about 11.6 million tonnes in 2017, but the increase is due to expansion of area and not the much-needed intensification. The average yield per hectare has been below 2 Mg ha-1 ...

Rising water temperatures and increasing eutrophication are disrupting the well-functioning of our aquatic systems, amongst others stimulating the growth of toxic cyanobacterial blooms. These blooms pose an important threat to human health, drinking water supplies, livestock, recreational activities, ecosystem functioning and food web structure. Daphnia spp. are pivotal interactors in pond and lake ecosystems, and their strong grazing ...

In the proposed PhD research, we will use the water flea Daphnia magna as a model system, and aim at obtaining insight into the community assembly of the microbiome and how it is impacted by evolution. The community assembly of the microbiome is the result of an interaction between the source community of free-living bacteria (further called “environmental source community”) and the features of the host accumulating bacteria via the uptake ...

The requirement for sustainable food production is a global issue to which the EU contributes as a major livestock producer. It is critical to improve animal production efficiency while sustaining environmentally friendly milk production. More profitable dairy production requires increased milk yield, cow health, longevity and fertility; reduced environmental footprint and optimised use of inputs. These are multifactorial problems to ...

As a PhD student, I studied the potential of whole-genome sequencing data to assess various types of genetic variability (i.e. point mutations, insertions and deletions, copy number alterations, fusion genes, expression and methylation changes) and studied how each of them could contribute to a specific human disease. For this purpose, I developed, used, combined and adapted numerous different bioinformatical approaches and applied them to ...

Recent developments in several omics platforms have made it possible to generate huge amounts
of genetic data. However, when trying to unravel how a genotype translates into a phenotype,
research often returns to traditional and laborious methods, and GxE interaction remains difficult
to detect. Ecophysiological models can quantify the effect of an environment on a phenotype, but
incorporation of genetic data within ...