Researchers

Prof. dr. Eric C.M. van Gorp studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam. In 1990 he graduated as a medical doctor, after which he started to work as a resident in the department of Internal Medicine of the Academic Medical Centre (AMC) Amsterdam. In 1997 he graduated as specialist in Internal Medicine and continued his training as infectious disease specialist. In 1998 he graduated as infectious disease specialist. In 2001 he finished his thesis entitled: “Studies on the pathophysiology of dengue haemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome”, granted by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). He is currently working at the Erasmus MC Rotterdam, the Netherlands, at the department of Internal Medicine and infectious diseases and at the department of Viroscience. He is visiting professor at the University of Airlanga in Surabaya, Indonesia. He is involved in the Rotterdam Global Health Initiative (RGHI\www.bmg.eur.nl/english/globalhealth). His field of interest is the social and scientific impact of infectious diseases; epidemiology, clinical management and pathophysiology. The research line, with several PhD’s, he is supervising is focussing on exotic viral infections, among which the hemorrhagic fevers, HIV and Fever studies, with an extensive (inter) national network in the Netherlands, the Caribbean, Surinam, China and Indonesia. He is supervisor of the vaccination outpatient clinic and the clinical trial unit from the Viroscience department.

Marco Goeijenbier (1986) graduated from high school (gymnasium) in 2004. In the same year, Marco started medical school at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) finishing it in 2010. He developed interest for physiology and the mechanisms underlying disease already early during his studies. During his internships this interest was further encouraged by Prof. dr. E.C.M. van Gorp and dr. J.F.P Wagenaar which resulted in the first research projects at the Slotervaart hospital in Amsterdam in collaboration with the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT). In 2010 he had the opportunity to follow the Research Master of Science programme: “Infection and Immunity” at the Postgraduate School Molecular Medicine of which he graduated in 2012 ‘Cum Laude’. Early 2011 he started as a PhD student at the department of Viroscience of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam under supervision of Prof.dr. A.D.M.E Osterhaus, Prof.dr. E.C.M van Gorp and Dr. B.E.E Martina. Furthermore, he started working as a traveler’s physician with the prior goal to advise the immune compromised patient with proper vaccination and travel policy under the supervision of Prof.dr. A. Verbon, Dr. J. Nouwen, Dr. K. Schurink and Prof.dr. E.C.M. van Gorp. In August 2015 he started working at the department of internal medicine of the Harbour hospital (Havenziekenhuis) in Rotterdam with the goal to specialize in internal medicine.

Kirsten Adriani (1979) was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In 1998 she started her medical education at the University of Amsterdam. During her studies she was student-member of the KNMG district Amsterdam. Her first scientific research was done at the Department of Neurology of the Academic Medical Centre under supervision of dr. J. de Gans and Prof.dr. D. van de Beek on recurrent bacterial meningitis. After her graduation she started her Neurology training at the Academic Medical Centre in 2007 (Prof. dr. J. Stam, Prof. dr. M. Vermeulen, Dr. J.H.T.M. Koelman, Prof.dr. Y.B.W.E.M. Roos, Prof. dr. I.N. van Schaik). One year of the residency was spent in the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis (Prof.dr. P. Portegies). From 2007 on she combined her Neurology training with a PhD project on risk factors for bacterial meningitis at the Department of Neurology of the Academic Medical Centre (Prof. dr. D. van de Beek, Dr. M.C. Brouwer), resulting in the thesis “Risk factors for community-acquired bacterial meningitis in adults”. In July 2014 she finished her Neurology training and worked from July 2014 – October 2015 as neurologist in Tergooiziekenhuizen (Blaricum/Hilversum). In October 2015 she started working as neurologist in the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis in Amsterdam. She does research on viral encephalitis and neurological complications of HIV at the Department of Viroscience, Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam (Prof.dr. E.C.M. van Gorp).

Laura Doornekamp (1991) was born in Liempde, the Netherlands. She attended gymnasium at Jacob Roelandslyceum in Boxtel and graduated cum laude in 2009. She decided to move to Maastricht to start studying Medicine at Maastricht University. She finished her masters with an internship at the department of Internal Medicine at the Catharina hospital in Eindhoven, the Netherlands in 2017. After a short internship at the Erasmus MC in 2015, she was offered a PhD position at the department of Viroscience under supervision of prof. dr. E.C.M. van Gorp and dr. M. Goeijenbier. Her thesis will be titled “Targeted prevention and control of virus infections in risk populations.” During her PhD Laura started working as physician at the Vaccination and Travel Clinic of the Erasmus MC and was involved in many education activities. She aims to obtain her PhD early 2021 and start a new position in December 2020 as resident in Medical Microbiology in Rotterdam. She will continue her research activities in the combined field of social and biomedical sciences to create optimal prevention strategies for virus infections.

Thomas Langerak (1990) attended the atheneum (pre-university education) at the Van Maerlantlyceum from 2003 to 2009 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. In 2009 he started medical school at the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam and graduated in December 2015. In January 2016 he started to work at the Viroscience department of the Erasmus MC as PhD-candidate under supervision of prof. Eric van Gorp. The main subjects of his PhD-project are viral infections on the Intensive Care department, viral infections and coagulation disorders and viral infections of the central nervous system. Furthermore, Thomas is performing research to the Zika virus and investigates the possible metabolic complications in HIV patients. Thomas also works at the Erasmus MC vaccination- and traveller’s clinic and is coach for the Viruskenner project in the Netherlands and Suriname.

Maarten Limper studied Medicine at the University of Amsterdam. After graduating in 2005, he started his career in internal medicine, first in the St. Eliasbeth Hospital in Curaçao, and then in the Slotervaart Hospital in Amsterdam. In 2011, he started his formal training in internal medicine in the Slotervaart Hospital, and continued his training at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. Maarten combined his clinical tasks with research, focusing on the value of new biomarkers for better diagnosis of febrile diseases with studies both in the Netherlands and in Curaçao, and successfully defended his PhD-thesis at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2014. From 2013-2016 he did a combined fellowship in infectious diseases and clinical immunology. In 2016, he registered as internist – clinical immunologist and from 2016 he has been working at the department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at the University Medical Center Utrecht.
At his current position, Maarten focuses on the clinical care of patients with systemic autoimmune diseases, auto-inflammatory diseases and immunodeficiency. His research topics include the pathophysiology and novel treatment of systemic lupus erythematodes and the antiphospholipid syndrome.

Yuri van der Does studied medicine at Utrecht University. After graduation, he worked in several emergency and critical care settings. In 2011, he started as a physician in the emergency department of the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam. He completed his residency in emergency medicine and currently works here as an attending emergency physician. During his medical education, Yuri worked on a number of research projects, ranging from medical ethics to psychiatric epidemiology. In the Erasmus MC he investigated noninvasive techniques for assessing hemodynamic status in emergency department triage. As a resident Yuri started together with Maarten Limper, Eric van Gorp and emergency physician Pleunie Rood on a validation project of the biomarker procalcitonin in the emergency department. The project developed in a PhD track and was named HiTEMP, and covered the diagnosis and treatment of emergency department patients with fever.

Marlies Wagener (1977) studied Physiotherapy at the University of Applied Sciences in Breda. After her graduation in 1999 she studied Health Sciences in Maastricht. She completed her Master Thesis about collaboration in work and health. After seven years of working in the work and health sector (KLM Health Services, EMcare), she started in 2009 as researcher and lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences, Centre of Knowledge Innovations in Care. Her first project was the development of the guideline on HIV and work. This guideline was presented in March 2012. From here she started her PhD on the TREVI-study in the Netherlands and Barbados in which she focused on HIV and work. In 2017 she successfully defended her theses. She was also involved in a research project on psychosocial functioning among sexually and/or mentally abused girls in the Industrial School for girls at Barbados. In 2016 she co-organized a symposium on Zika, a cooperation between the ErasmusMC and the University of Applied Sciences. Currently she focusses in lifestyle and health, and together with Eric van Gorp, she is working on a project about lifestyle and the prevention of infectious diseases.

Stefanie van Opstal (1984) studied Occupational Therapy at the University of Applied Sciences in Rotterdam and Medical Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. After graduating in 2010, she worked as a lecturer in Occupational Therapy and as a researcher at the University of Applied Sciences in Rotterdam, Centre of Knowledge Innovations in Care. Since 2012 she is involved in the TREVI-research project of the Erasmus Medical Center and the Sophia Children’s Hospital. She focusses on consequences of HIV on the cognitive functioning and the ability to fully participate in live. She investigates the cognitive development in children with a perinatal acquired HIV-infecting and their daily functioning at school. For adults, she investigates the experiences of late-presenters at their workplace, during and after the period they were diagnosed.

Justin du Toit was born in a small town Krugersdorp (close to Johannesburg) in South-Africa. He attended primary school, secondary school and High school in the same town until he matriculated in 1999 with 4A’s and 2Bs (he obtained a prize for the best student in Biology, Mathematics and Physics). From 2000 to 2005 Justin attended medical school at the University of Pretoria and obtained an MBChB (equivalent to the MD in the Netherlands) end 2005. In 2006 he was sent to Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South-Africa where he did his internship. From 2007 to February 2009 Justin worked as a senior medical officer at False Bay Hospital in Fish Hoek, Cape Town and from March 2009 to March 2010 as a registrar in Internal medicine in George Provincial Hospital (registrar in South-African terms means “arts in opleiding”). From March 2010 he started working as a second year registrar at Groote Schuur Hospital until he obtained his FCP(SA) – fellowship at the college of physicians of South-Africa in March 2013. Justin completed the following rotations in order (every rotation lasts 3 months) : Nephrology, Geriatrics, Hepatology, Pulmonology, Cardiology, Haematology and Neurology. From April to August 2013 he worked as junior consultant in internal medicine at GFJooste Hospital, Manenberg, Cape Town (focusing on infectious diseases). In September 2013 he went to the Netherlands to do a research Master of science (infection & immunity) – He completed both lab internships in the Viroscience lab. First internship in the Influenza lab of Ron Fouchier and the second internship in the Exotic virus group with Byron Martina. Justin obtained his MSc in August 2015. Currently, he is doing a Clinical Haematology Fellowhip at Groote Schuur Hospital, University of Cape Town.

Kirby Tong-Minh graduated in medicine in 2015 in Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam. He worked several years at the emergency department and intensive care unit as resident. Currently he is doing a PhD in the emergency department and intensive care unit, where he investigates the use of new biomarkers to predict the severity of infectious diseases.

Leanne van Leeuwen was born in 1992. After finishing Gymnasium at Bonaventura college in Leiden; she started to study medicine in the same city. In her first year of university, she rowed in the freshmen’s varsity eight. During her masters she was selected to participated in the Leiden Leadership Programme, a part of the honours academy. In addition to studying, she worked as a ski instructor during the winter holidays. After graduation, she worked as a doctor in different departments for two years (cardiology, intensive care, pulmonology) before starting as a Phd-candidate in the Department of Viroscience at the Erasmus Medical Centre in 2020. She will focus on the effectiveness of vaccination programmes in order to optimize vaccine coverage in the Netherlands. In addition to her job as PhD candidate, she provides training in a children’s circus on a voluntary basis.

Katrijn Daenen was born in the southern part of the Netherlands and attended gymnasium at the Pius X College in Bladel. In 2011 she moved to Nijmegen where she started her medical education. During her studies she developed special interests in internal medicine. After her graduation she decided to discover the western part of the Netherlands as well and started her internal medicine specialization in Rotterdam. Encouraged by the COVID-19 pandemic she is currently doing a PhD in the viroscience department and intensive care unit, studying the effect of corticosteroid therapy in COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Since Katrijn was 6 years old she has been a fanatic football player and nowadays you can still find her on the pitch three times a week.