Laboratory of Medical Microbiology - Post-Doctorate Researchers

Dr. Katherine Loens is a clinical and molecular microbiologist. During and after obtaining her PhD she was actively involved in the development, evaluation and validation of molecular tests for the detection of respiratory pathogens in community-acquired respiratory infections within eg the FP6 GRACE project.  She is currently involved in the coordination of 3 Belgian reference centres: NRC respiratory pathogens, NRC enterococci and NRC invasive Group A Streptococci.  Furthermore, part of her time is dedicated to TRACE, an ESF-funded research networking programme.

Office: S6.24
E-mail: katherine.loens@uantwerpen.be 
Tel.: +32 3 265 24 18

List of Publications

Dr. Leen Timbermont graduated a bio-engineer with a focus on microbiology and biotechnology. During and after her PhD she did research on virulence factors of Clostridium perfringens and on novel strategies to prevent and treat C. perfringens induced disease. Currently, she is involved in COMBACTE-APC1, an IMI funded project aiming to understand how Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia occurs and to develop better S. aureus disease prevention options.

Office: S6.21
E-mail: leen.timbermont@uantwerpen.be
Tel.: +32 32652551 

List of Publications

Dr. Liesbet Van Heirstraeten graduated as a Biomedical scientist with a focus on molecular cell biology and genetics. During her PhD at UA she did research on antibiotic resistance in gram-positive bacteria and molecular diagnostics. Currently she is involved in a project to evaluate the influence of pneumococcal vaccination programmes on nasopharyngeal carriage of S. pneumoniae and other common potential pathogens in infants.

Office: S6.26
E-mail: liesbet.vanheirstraeten@uantwerpen.be
Tel.: +32 3 265 25 50      

List of Publications

Dr. Qiang Lin is a microbiologist with a background in environmental microbiome and bioinformatics. In 2016, he received his PhD in environmental science from Chinese Academy of Sciences. Qiang Lin is interested in medical and environmental microbiology, using RNAseq, whole genomic sequencing, metagenomics sequencing. Up to now, he has published 21 papers concerning microbiome in bioreactors, soil, metal remediation, methanogenesis and animal guts. In June 2019, he joined the LMM, worked on bioinformatics and focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying biofilm formation and transfer, and colistin resistance.

Office: S6.26
E-mail: Qiang.Lin@uantwerpen.be
 

Dr. Matilda Berkell is a microbiologist with a focus on molecular microbiology and bioinformatics. She defended her PhD in 2020 and is currently combining bacterial genomics, metagenomics, and metatranscriptomics to gain a better understanding of microbial markers predictive of infection and disease severity, prediction and prevention of antibiotic-associated microbial dysbiosis, and to identify potential vaccine targets. Currently, Matilda is involved in several large, EU-funded, international projects such as ORCHESTRA (H2020), NeoIPC (H2020), and COMBACTE-MAGNET (IMI), and has previously been involved in ANTICIPATE (COMBACTE-NET, IMI).

Office: S6.26
E-mail: matilda.berkell@uantwerpen.be
Tel.: +32 3 265 24 82

Biljana Kakaraskoska Boceska is a medical doctor, specialist in medical microbiology and also has a Master degree in Public Health from the Medical Faculty in Skopje, North Macedonia. She has worked for six years at the Virology and over 10 years in Bacteriology department at the Institute of Public Health of N. Macedonia. Also, she was an assistant professor in microbiology at the Faculty for Medical Sciences in Shtip, N. Macedonia. She joined the Laboratory of Medical Microbiology in the University of Antwerp in 2021 as a part of LAB-Net Team. As a researcher, she works on several studies in the European projects COMBACTE and ECRAID-Base

Office: S6.21

E-mail: 

Biljana.KakaraskoskaBoceska@uantwerpen.be​

Tel.: +32 3 265 34 94

Safia Thaminy is a research scientist. She holds a PhD in biochemistry (University of Zurich), a MSc in medical ethics and bioethics (University Paris Descartes) and a university diploma in clinical research (University Paris Descartes). Her first interest which focused on fundamental and applied cancer research led her to work at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center (Seattle, WA), the Institute for Systems Biology (Seattle, WA), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and the National Cancer Research Center in Tokyo. This experience brought her to expand her horizon to clinical research by supporting the coordination of European clinical trials (ECRIN, Paris) and the activities of the Research Luxembourg COVID-19 Task Force (University of Luxembourg). At the LMM, her interest focuses on clinical research preparedness during disease outbreaks.

Office: S2.37

E-mail: safia.thaminy@uantwerpen.be