My ethos

I think of science as a collaborative enterprise to the benefit of all, where curiosity and critical thinking are drivers to increasing human knowledge about the world around us, and respect, responsibility, quality, integrity, reproducibility, diversity, equity and fairness are values and principles we hold ourselves accountable to.

I strive for honesty and clarity. We should be honest about what we can achieve through our science. And clear about the limitations of our science. My first goal is for the benefit of all, not to the benefit of one. I value realistic timelines, direct communication, and sharing preliminary results through face-to-face meetings.

Over the years, I have been fortunate to collaborate and work with some very talented and inspiring people, but I remain humble and approach each project as an opportunity to improve. Cutting corners will lead to mediocrity. We owe ourselves the best of us through our science and hard work.

I am proud of my Dutch heritage (with a spark of Indonesia) and its academic culture, and embrace its fruits, but national pride has no place in science which first and foremost should serve humanity.

The Future of Science is Open, as is my Science.

My Work

My primary research focus is on the genetic causes of atherosclerosis and their effect on plaque morphology that underlies ischemic stroke and coronary artery disease, and subclinical atherosclerosis.

With my work I aim to move from genome-wide association studies loci to novel therapeutic targets and (surrogate) biomarkers for cardiovascular diseases through extensive in silico, and in vitro modelling.

Funding and disclosures

My work is supported or funded through different means. By and large I am supported through (inter)national funds for research, but now and then industry does sponsor our work on a contract-basis. Does industry determine what I do or what my research focus should be? Nope, we set our own course.

I am thankful for the past and current support of the Netherlands CardioVascular Research Initiative of the Netherlands Heart Foundation (CVON 2011/B019 and CVON 2017-20: Generating the best evidence-based pharmaceutical targets for atherosclerosis [GENIUS I&II]), the ERA-CVD program druggable-MI-targets (grant number: 01KL1802), the Leducq Fondation PlaqOmics (PlaqView and SPOCq), EU H2020 TO_AITION (grant number: 848146), EU HORIZON NextGen (grant number: 101136962), the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (MetaPlaq), Roche Diagnostics (contract-basis), HealthHolland Getting the Perfect Image, NIH CaRe-T1D, and the EWUU alliance (PlaqAI).

Donations

Interested in (personally) supporting my work? I am working on a solution to this end - check back soon.