Anouk Janssen

I am a PhD candidate in the CGM group since October 2021. I am interested in the potential of liquid biopsy in preimplantation genetic testing and in prenatal testing. During my PhD, I will develop innovative methods to perform non-invasive preimplantation and prenatal testing. I hope that with my research, I can enhance our knowledge in human reproduction and increasing IVF success in the end. I studied Biomedical Sciences at Radboud University in Nijmegen. During my studies, I got introduced to the interesting field of genetics. I joined the lab of prof. Ronald Roepman at the department of Genetics for my first MSc internship. Here, I studied a genetic form of retinal degeneration by performing CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing. To further explore the field of genomics, I joined the Evolutionary Neurogenomics group led by Dr. Frank Jacobs at the University of Amsterdam. I explored the role of PRDM9, a histone methyltransferase that is essential in meiotic recombination. During this internship I got intrigued by the early phase of life and how much there is yet to explore.