Thesis defense Lisa te Molder

25 February        11.15     Leiden University

From researching one protein to helping out innovative companies
"The most inspiring moment during my PhD research was at a conference. I met someone from the Debra foundation, who told me about patients with the serious skin disease one gets when missing the protein I was researching. With this butterfly disease or Epidermolysis Bullosa, your skin is very fragile and you get blisters all the time because your epidermis does not attach to your dermis. That link to patients’ lives strongly motivated me to continue my research. In addition to the role of this protein in the skin, I also investigated how it is involved in skin cancer. As interesting as it was, I realized that it was important to me that my future work would help people faster than my fundamental research did. That is why I am now a grant consultant at Innovencio, helping small companies in particular to get grants to develop innovations. Sometimes in healthcare, but also for example in the field of plastic recycling or energy storage. Now I get to work on something new every month." Lisa defends her thesis on February 25.

The thesis
Regulators of integrin α6β4 function

Practical information about the defense
More information on Leiden University's calendar page