Architha Ellapalayam – Chair
Hi! I’m Architha and I’m a PhD candidate in the department of Systems and Synthetic Biology in Wageningen University. My research interests are in breast cancer diagnostics,specifically genomic testing. In an interest to connect with fellow bioinformaticians and computational biologists, I joined the RSG Board in 2019 and it has been a fun ride since then. In general, I love to build things, both big and small (wooden clocks, miniature houses), and when I take a break from building, I then try my hand at painting (these hobbies work perfectly well when you’re stuck at home the whole year). This year, I hope to organize many exciting events along with my fellow Board members, and I look forward to connecting to more of you this year!
Liting Chen – Secretary
Hi! I’m Li-Ting Chen, a PhD student in the group of Jeroen de Ridder at University Medical Center Utrecht. I am originally from Taiwan. My research interest is on cell-free DNA biology and its application in cancer detection. I joined RSG Netherlands in 2019 summer as PR and will be taking over the secretary role in 2021. I’m happy to be a member of RSG Board and hope to arrange many more (virtual) gathering and knowledge exchanges between computational biology PhD students in the Netherlands!
Ming Wai – Treasurer
Hello! My name is Ming Wai and I’m from Hong Kong. I will be the treasurer of the board this year. After finishing my master study on Life Science Informatics in Bonn, Germany, I moved to Groningen to start my PhD on machine learning in Medical Science with a focus on complex diseases. I am currently working in identification of new markers using genetic data and imaging data. I love travelling and learning about new cultures. I enjoy very much trying out new cuisines and I usually bring home a new dish in my cooking repertoire to remind myself of each journey. I also like to spend my spare time going hiking or playing badminton. However, like most people, I have made adjustments this year due to the pandemic – most times these days I just stay home and be a couch potato. I am excited with this new role and look forward to organizing interesting events and meeting you in these events.
Katharina Waury – Acquisitions
Hi! My name is Kathy, I’m 25 years old and originally from Berlin, Germany. I studied Bioinformatics at Uppsala University in Sweden before moving to the Netherlands. I started my PhD this year in September at the Bioinformatics group at VU Amsterdam. My project is part of the EU project MIRIADE with the aim of finding new biomarkers for dementia research. I will focus on developing computational methods to support the validation of biomarker immunoassays by predicting the binding success of antibodies to their targets. I’m looking forward to meeting other PhD students in the Netherlands and hope we will organize some great events in the coming months!
Lieke Michielsen – PR
Hi! I am Lieke Michielsen, a first year PhD student at the LUMC and the TU Delft and I am part of the BRAINSCAPES consortium. Currently, my research is mainly focused on single cell classification methods. As many of you might now, starting with your PhD during the pandemic is not ideal. Therefore I grabbed the opportunity to join the RSG board to meet new people and organize interesting and fun events to bring young researchers together. In general I like to try out things that I have never done before, which can range from trying new sports or cooking interesting recipes. Joining the RSG board brings a new challenge and as Pippi Langstocking would say: “I haven’t tried this before, so I would definitely be able to do that.”