Daan Beentjes

After completing my undergraduate in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, I continued my studies at Leiden University (The Netherlands) where I finished a MSc in Biomedical Sciences. As part of my degree, I did an internship for a year in the group of Professor Aras Kadioglu where I worked on pneumococcal carriage. In February 2021, I started a PhD project within the same group.

The main topic of my PhD project is the transmission of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Infection with this pathogen is normally characterised as an asymptomatic colonisation of the upper respiratory tract. However, asymptomatic carriage is also recognised as both a prerequisite for the development of life-threatening diseases and acts as a reservoir for transmission. Although the pathogenesis of S. pneumoniae is relatively well studied, the factors that drive pneumococcal transmission are still largely unknown. Using mouse models, I will therefore investigate the role of pneumococcal virulence factors and host immune responses in transmission, but I will also study the impact of vaccination, environmental factors, and co-infection with other respiratory pathogens.