I obtained my PhD in the laboratory of Henk Stunnenberg at the Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, where I mainly focused on the functional characterization of transcriptional co-repressor complexes.
In 2005 I moved to Munich to join the lab of Matthias Mann. There, I pioneered the application of quantitative mass spectrometry technology to identify proteins that specifically interact with post-translational modifications on core histones.
In 2009 I was appointed as assistant professor and in 2013 as associate professor at the University Medical Center Utrecht in The Netherlands, where I continued to use quantitative mass-spectrometry to study proteins that interact with chromatin.
In 2014 I was appointed full professor at the Radboud University Nijmegen, where my main research focus is to apply integrative omics approaches to study gene expression regulation in development and disease. In recent years, my lab also focused on other questions related to gene expression regulation. For example, my lab performed the first proteome-wide screenings to identify interactors of ubiquitin linkages, the mRNA modification m6A and ADP ribose linkages. We also developed the first genomic sequencing-based method to profile apparent affinities between transcription factors and native chromatin. The pioneering technologies developed by my lab are greatly appreciated by the scientific community, as evidenced by a large number of collaborative publications with leading (inter)national scientists.
I was awarded a VIDI in 2009, an ERC Starting Grant in 2012, an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2017 and an NWO-VICI grant in 2021. In 2017, I was elected as one of the 43 founding members of the Oncode Institute. In 2019 I was elected as a member of Academia Europaea and in 2022 I was elected as a member of EMBO.
In 2023 I was appointed as senior group leader at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, while also maintaining my lab at the Radboud University Nijmegen