Research

We have various opportunities for student projects, please see this page for more information.

NWO Veni: Pathogens, microbiomes, and host evolution in a world of global change

In 2023, Marjolein was awarded a NWO Veni grant (news articles on NWO and UvA pages). The aim of this project is to unravel how the microbiome mediates responses to disease dynamics, utilizing the water flea Daphnia magna and its bacterial pathogen Pasteuria ramosa as a study system. The project integrates pathogen infection experiments and cutting-edge microbiome transplant experiment, with theory from community ecology, evolutionary biology and epidemiology.

Research themes

Our research is centered around four major themes.

  • Eco-evolutionary dynamics

    At the interface of ecology and evolution, we study how interactions between ecological dynamics and rapid evolutionary processes influence and structure populations.

  • Population ecology

    Using various types of demographic population models, we quantify how environmental conditions (such as warming) impact population dynamics, building mechanistic links between individual level life history traits and population level outcomes.

  • Host-pathogens

    Our research focuses on host-pathogen dynamics, studying how host-pathogen interactions shape coevolutionary trajectories and disease impacts.

  • Microbiome

    We investigate the role of the microbiome in host performance and evolution, combining tools from ecology and evolutionary biology, with experiments.