1) I studied Biochemistry at the University of Groningen, and obtained my BSc in 'Natural Sciences'. I continued at the same university to get my PhD on the production of bacteriocins by lactic acid bacteria. I also did a brief PostDoc at this university on the same subject.

2) I then continued my career as a PostDoc at the North Carolina State University in the Food Science Department, where I studied the use of lactobacilli as carrrier for vaccins, particularly for in ovo injection in eggs for chickens.

3) When back in the Netherlands, I did a PostDoc in the Laboratory of Phytopathology of the Wageningen University, studying the interaction of fungi (Mycosphaerella graminicola) with their host (wheat). 

4) Then TNO phoned and convinced me to work for them. Since part of the work involved the TNO in vitro model of the colon (TIM-2), I practically immediately said yes, and expanded that work, until it was all I did at TNO. I have spent 15 years at TNO studying the use of the TNO in vitro models (nick-named TIM) for the development of functional foods, with an emphasis on probiotics and prebiotics, or what I nowadays call: beneficial microbes

5) While at TNO, I ran two projects at the Top Institute Food Nutrition (or Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences as it was called when I started). As a project manager I coordinated two projects on i) gut microbiota activity and its relation to health, and ii) the interactions of probiotics and prebiotics/fibers with the host.

6) I initiated the conference series on Beneficial Microbes. The first three were organized when I was at TNO and were hence called the TNO Beneficial Microbes Conference. At present they are organized by Bastiaanse Communication and are 'just' called Beneficial Microbes Conference. The next is on November 26-28, 2018 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

 

7) Bastiaanse Communication and Wageningen Academic Publishers asked me to be Editor-in-chief of the journal Beneficial Microbes, which stems from the conference series, with Daan Barugg as the founding father. Started in 2010, we obtained our first Thomson ISI impact factor in 2012 of 1.474. In 2016 it had increased to a solid 2.931.

8) In January 2014 I started my own consultancy company:

'Beneficial Microbes^® Consultancy'.

9) In September of 2014 I started at Maastricht University - campus Venlo, Centre for Healthy Eating and Food Innovation (HEFI), as Associated Professor. Here I am setting up my own research group, continuing the work on Beneficial Microbes using the TIM-systems. As of Nov 01, 2015 I became Full Professor with a chair in Gut Microbiology at Maastricht University.

10) I joined the advisory board of Ital Food ead, part of Ficosota in May 2018 to help with the development of their Livity Bar product, containing a cocktail of probiotics.

11) In September of 2018 I joined the advisory board of Keep Food Simple, a foundation that supports the development of nutritious and tasty food by more effectively using the nutritional potential of agricultural raw materials, therefore decreasing the dependence on additives, reducing the amount of waste in the form of raw materials, nutrients and other edible substances and promoting low CO2- and water-footprints