Group Leader

Marijn obtained her PhD at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, working on the mechanisms and regulation of intracellular transport in neurons. During her Postdoc in Berlin she investigated neuronal autophagy. Since July 2022, she is assistent professor and group leader in the Netherlands, at the Radboud University and the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour. Here, she uses primary cultures and iPSC-derived neurons to study proteostasis and neuronal organelle function.

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Technical Assistent

Sharon obtained her BSc from HAN University of Applied Sciences in Nijmegen with a specialization in biomedical research. She previously contributed to the development of in vitro iPSC-based models for focal segmental glomerulosclerosis

and elucidating the roles of new antigens in membranous nephropathy. She joined Kuijperslab in november of 2022.

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Postdoc

Koen obtained his PhD at the Radboud University where he studied the transcriptomic and electrophysiological changes during plasticity in the rodent barrel cortex. He then moved for a postdoc position to the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience where he investigated mitochondria in myelinated interneurons. Currently he works in the lab of Marijn, where he uses Crispr/Cas9 and viral techniques in primary neuronal cultures to study the role of the endoplasmic reticulum in controlling presynaptic function.

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PhD candidate

Lia is a PhD student, who obtained her master’s degree in cellular and molecular neurobiology in the University of Coimbra (PT). During her master thesis she focused on the function of non-canonical SNARE proteins. Currently, she is interested in a specialized domain of endoplasmic reticulum present in the axon initial segment – Cisternal Organelle – understanding its dynamics, function, and impact in neurotransmission.

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PhD candidate

Devaraj joined Kuijpers' lab as a Ph.D. candidate in March 2023. He obtained his Master's in Life Sciences from the Central University of Tamil Nadu, India and pursued an M.Phil in Biophysics at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru, India.  His Ph.D. project centers on the endolysosomal system and the membrane trafficking processes underlying presynaptic proteostasis, using different molecular biology tools and microscopy in primary neuron cultures.

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Postdoc

Eline completed her masters in Neuroscience at the VU University in Amsterdam. During her PhD within the department of human genetics at the Radboudumc, she investigated the impact of voltage-gated sodium channel mutations on excitatory neuronal networks. Her approach involved a combination of patient iPSC-derived neuronal networks, MEA assays and single-cell electophysiology. In 2023, Eline joined the Kuijpers lab where she will focus on investigating the effects of alpha-synuclein aggregates on neuronal organelle and synaptic dysfunction within the context of Parkinson's disease.