Bas works as a scientist at VICO Therapeutics B.V. and joined the NeuroD group as an industrial PhD student in January 2024. Prior to starting his PhD and his work at the company, Bas obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biomedical Sciences at the LUMC.
Bas’s PhD is a collaborative project between the NeuroD group and VICO Therapeutics. In this project, he will develop immunoassays to accurately quantify polyglutamine (polyQ) protein levels to support the development of therapies for polyQ expansion disorders like Huntington’s disease (HD) and spinocerebellar ataxia types 1 and 3 (SCA1, SCA3). Additionally, he will establish induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models to investigate the functionality of an ATXN3 protein isoform induced by exon-skipping antisense oligonucleotides — a potential therapy for SCA3.