Students
Below you can see a list of current and previous student projects at MaCSBio.
Are you looking for practical work experience in a young, international research institute? Check out available research and thesis projects.
Student projects 2025/26
| Master students | Project |
|---|---|
| Eva Nieuwenhuis | Identification of sex and/or menopause related differences in metabolism in dilated cardiomyopathy Program: Master Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (VU) Supervisor: Michiel Adriaens |
| Bachelor students | Project |
|---|---|
| Paolo Rosas Chang | Energetics of information transfer at biological synapses Program: Bachelor Business Engineering Supervisor: Renaud Jolivet |
| Samanta Lowe | Vfix: Optimizing enzyme Vmax constraints via Mixed-Integer Linear Programming Program: University College Maastricht Supervisor: Marian Breuer |
| Pāku Peither | Modeling the role of Astrocytes in modulating neural activity in the hyppocampus Program: Bachelor Maastricht Science Programme Supervisor: Renaud Jolivet |
Student projects 2024/25
| Student | Project | Program | Supervisor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Master students | |||
| Pilon, Brad | Exploring Brain Plasticity underlying Adaptive Auditory Processing | Master Systems Biology & Bioinformatics | Michelle Moerel |
| Kusters, Matthijs | Computational model of auditory selective attention | Master Systems Biology & Bioinformatics | Michelle Moerel |
| Damour, Chris | Knowledge-Primed Neural Network for understanding metabolic remodelling in Heart Failure | Master Systems Biology & Bioinformatics | Michiel Adriaens |
| Axelsson, Agust | ExA-SPIM Image Processing Pipeline: Tile Stitching and Neuron Segmentation | Master Image Engineering | Renaud Jolivet |
| Kotwicka, Zuzanna | Identifying the human TRN based on ultra-high field MRI data | Master Neuropsychology | Michelle Moerel |
| Honours students | |||
| Manchester Vareille, Sorismonde | Honours programme: Improving the calculation of metabolic task scores in genome-scale metabolic models | Bachelor Maastricht Science Programme | Marian Breuer |
| Filatova, Arina | Honours programme: Molecular Mechanisms of Pancreatic Cancer | Bachelor Maastricht Science Programme | Martina Summer-Kutmon |
| Csenteri, Eszter | Honours Project | Bachelor Maastricht Science Programme | Marian Breuer |
| Aizic, Ioana | Honours Project | Bachelor Maastricht Science Programme | Marian Breuer |
| Bachelor students | |||
| Savelkoul, Anne | RNAseq analysis of pathways involved in pearl-necklace mitochondria | Bachelor Maastricht Science Programme | Mike Gerards Daan van Beek |
| Schmidt, Emilia | Modelling the immediate response to stroke in an experimentally validated model of the neuron-glia-vasculature interface | Bachelor Maastricht Science Programme | Renaud Jolivet |
| Marianovich, Reka | Preparing biochemically informed input for metabolic modeling | Bachelor Maastricht Science Programme | Marian Breuer |
| Cucalón Martinez, Amelia | Identification of reliable mitochondrial quantification tools | Bachelor Maastricht Science Programme | Mike Gerards |
| Bereş, Iulia | Engineering plasmids for mitochondrial visualization | Bachelor Maastricht Science Programme | Mike Gerards |
| Hoogt de, Fleur | Applying metabolic task analysis on cardiomyocytes responding to chemotherapy | Bachelor Maastricht Science Programme | Michiel Adriaens |
| Kyriacou, Markos | Computational analysis of signal propagation in plant tissues | Bachelor Maastricht Science Programme | Ruth Grosseholz |
| Türker, Simin Elif | Uncovering Molecular Mechanisms in Inflammatory Skin Diseases: A Gene Expression Study | Bachelor Maastricht Science Programme | Martina Summer-Kutmon |
| Baumans, Clara | MSP Bachelor thesis, tbd | Bachelor Maastricht Science Programme | Marian Breuer |
| Salda, Melanie | Understanding Immune Dysregulation: A Systems Biology Approach | Bachelor Buisness Engineering | Martina Summer-Kutmon |
| Francesch, Lucas | Improving linear programming-based algorithms for the optimization of metabolic reaction network routes from experimental data | Bachelor Buisness Engineering | Marian Breuer |
| de Bie, Mignon | Improving Mathematical Analysis of Reaction Fluxes in Biochemical Networks | Bachelor Buisness Engineering | Marian Breuer |
| Paddison, Malaika | GWAS in cognitive traits with Human Connectome Project data | Bachelor Biomedical Sciences | Daan van Beek |
| El-Azis, Aya | Modeling the impact of genetic variation on brain function | Bachelor Biomedical Sciences | Michiel Adriaens |
| Kristof Kirps | post-COVID | Bachelor Biomedical Sciences | Martina Summer-Kutmon |
| Hendrik Dupont | Automating Gene Set Enrichment Selection: A Decision-Support Tool for Gene Set Collection Choice in Transcriptomic Analyses | Bachelor Biomedical Sciences | Martina Summer-Kutmon |
| Kumar, Sarvesh Ramesh | Optimizing personalized diets in the context of sustainability | Bachelor Circular Engineering | Michiel Adriaens |
Student projects 2023/24
| Student | Internship |
|---|---|
| Alejandro Adriaque Lozano | Title: Using Knowledge Graphs for Drug Repurposing for (post-)COVID-19 Supervisor: Martina Summer-Kutmon Program: Master Systems Biology, UM |
| Julia Bous | Title: Metabolic modeling of cellular aging Supervisor: Marian Breuer Program: Master Biomedical Sciences, University of Liege |
| Justin Cornelis | Title: Modelling metabolic network models through mixed-integer linear programming Supervisor: Marian Breuer Program: Bachelor MSP, UM |
| Sanne de Bruijn | Title: Improving the prediction of reactions used in cellular metabolic tasks Supervisor: Marian Breuer Program: Medische Natuurwetenschappen |
| Lucia di Pietro | Title: Computational modelling of the metabolic networks of glial cells Supervisor: Renaud Jolivet and Marian Breuer Program: Erasmus student |
| Jordy Gnanapragasam | Title: Metabolic Tasks: Exploring Immune Cell Function and Vitality with Cell Type-Specific Transcriptomics Supervisor: Martina Summer-Kutmon Program: Bachelor BBS, UM |
| Alicia Hobdell | Title: Genome-scale metabolic model construction and analysis in fibroblasts Supervisor: Marian Breuer and Mike Gerards Program: Bachelor MSP, UM |
| Catalina Keuser | Title: Modeling the Metabolic Diversity of the Brain's Glial Cells Supervisor: Renaud Jolivet and Marian Breuer Program: Bachelor MSP, UM Honours programme |
| Sydney Kissel | Title: An anatomical and functional characterization of the human thalamic reticular nucleus Supervisor: Michelle Moerel Program: Bachelor MSP, UM |
| Nikita Krstevska | Title: Old cells, new pathways: Curating more metabolic pathways of cellular senescence Supervisor: Marian Breuer Program: Biochemistry and Cell Biology |
| Sorismonde Manchester Vareille | Title: Improving the calculation of metabolic task scores in genome-scale metabolic models Supervisor: Marian Breuer Program: Bachelor MSP, UM |
| Matthieu Marienbach | Title: Theoretical analysis of a neural interface Supervisor: Niccolo Calcini Program: Bachelor MSP, UM |
| Ella von Moeller | Title: Studying Cell Type-specific T-cell Metabolism using Pathway- and Network-based Approaches Supervisor: Martina Summer-Kutmon Program: Bachelor UCM, UM |
| Andrea Pascaud | Title: Metabolic Modeling of Cellular Senescence Supervisor: Marian Breuer Program: Bachelor MSP, UM |
| Diego Rodriguez Esperante | Title: Predictive metabolic profiling in endometrial steroid endocrinology Supervisor: Michiel Adriaens Program: Master Systems Biology, UM |
| Alex Rovira Rincon | Title: Predicting outcome of deep brain stimulation in tinnitus patients Supervisor: Michelle Moerel Program: Master Systems Biology, UM |
| Linda Sudmale | Title: Exploring Synaptic Efficiency in Neural Networks Supervisor: Renaud Jolivet Program: Business Engineering |
| Pablo Tejero Sanz | Title: Construction of a genome-scale metabolic model of cellular senescence in fibroblast Supervisor: Marian Breuer Program: Master Systems Biology, UM |
Student projects 2022/23
| Student | Internship |
|---|---|
| Paula Aldaz Laquidain | Title: Infant nutrition: The relation of HMO to infant weight and growth in early life Supervisor: David Barnett, Ilja Arts Program: UC Venlo Bachelor |
| Cléophée Bruchou | Title: Simulating myelin plasticity Supervisor: Renaud Jolivet Program: Maastricht Science Programme (MSP) |
| Jean Janssen | Title: Digital Twins; using personalizable in silico models to characterize glycaemic control Supervisor: Michiel Adriaens, Balazs Erdos Program: Bachelor Data Science and AI |
| Akiya Hoken | Title: Predicting optimal diet in the context of exercise performance Supervisor: Michiel Adriaens Program: Maastricht Science Programme (MSP) |
| Ioannis Panagopoulos | Title: Functional analysis of mitochondrial dynamics Supervisor: Mike Gerards Program: University of Thessaly |
| Smriti Rajesh | Title: Supervisor: Marian Breuer Program: MSP |
| Isabel Wassink | Title: Using pathway models to understand the molecular mechanisms of immune cells in pancreatic cancer Supervisor: Martina Summer-Kutmon Program: Master BMS |
| Michail-Georgios Papachristos | Title: Supervisor: Michelle Moerel, Michiel Adriaens Program: Master MSB |
| Rosa Maria Marroquin Sala | Title: Modeling the Metabolic Diversity of the Brain’s Glial Cells Supervisor: Renault Jolivet, Marian Breuer Program: BMS |
| Jasmijn van Zaanen | Title: Metabolic Modelling of Glial Cells Supervisor: Renault Jolivet, Marian Breuer Program: Maastricht Science Programme (MSP) |
| Rebecca Werhahn | Title: Identifying mitochondrial dynamics related proteins Supervisor: Mike Gerards Program: Maastricht Science Programme (MSP) |
| Mathias Verschueren | Title: Quantifying parameter uncertainty in computational models of the human glucose-insulin regulatory system Supervisor: Balazs Erdos Program: DACS |
| Alina Schepers | Title: Characterizing Auditory Processing in the Human Thalamic Reticular Nucleus Supervisor: Michelle Moerel, Michiel Adriaens Program: Maastricht Science Programme (MSP) |
| Pia Mozdzanowski | Title: Investigating Immune Regulatory Mechanisms in Dilated Cardiomyopathy Supervisor: Michiel Adriaens Program: University College Maastricht (UCM) |
| Ella von Moeller | Title: Constraint-based modelling for Cellular Senescence Supervisor: Marian Breuer Program: University College Maastricht (UCM) |
| Lea Gschwenter | Title: Network Biology: Modeling the Epigenetic Regulatory Network of Immune Cells Supervisor: Martina Summer-Kutmon Program: University College Maastricht (UCM) |
| Catalina Keuser | Title: Metabolic modeling of cellular aging Supervisor: Renault Jolivet, Marian Breuer Program: Bachelor Biomedical Sciences (BBS) |
| Julia Bous | Title: TBA Supervisor: Marian Breuer Program: Bachelor Biomedical Sciences (BBS) |
| Joshua Müller | Title: Drug repurposing approaches to identify candidate drugs for COVID / long-COVID Supervisor: Martina Summer-Kutmon Program: Bachelor Biomedical Sciences (BBS) |
| Clarissa Falempin | Title: TBA Supervisor: Mike Gerards Program: Bachelor Biomedical Sciences (BBS) |
| Jakho Katrina | Title: Supervisor: Mike Gerards Program: Bachelor Biomedical Sciences (BBS) |
| Julia Streutker | Title: TBA Supervisor: Renault Jolivet Program: Bachelor Biomedical Sciences (BBS) |
| Gabriela Ioan | Title: TBA Supervisor: Michiel Adriaens Program: None |
| Jelle Bonthuis | Title: TBA Supervisor: Marian Breuer Program: Maastricht Science Programme (MSP) |
| Skye McKenna | Title: TBA Supervisor: Marian Breuer Program: Bachelor Biomedical Sciences (BBS) |
Student projects 2021/22
| Student / Program | Title | Supervisor |
|---|---|---|
| Sonia Bălan MSP | Metabolic modeling of cellular senescence | Marian Breuer |
| Nina Valenbreder MSP | Modelling metabolism along the gut-heart axis | Michiel Adriaens |
| Carlijn Steen Master BMS | Elucidating the landscape of mitochondrial dynamics: the exhibition of a novel phenotype | Mike Gerards, Irene Hemel |
| Liana Franssen Fontys | Functional characterisation of mitochondrial dynamics candidate proteins | Mike Gerards, Irene Hemel |
| Mehrdad Pouyanfar Master DKE | Pattern recognition and feature extraction from continuous glucose monitoring(CGM) signals | Balazs Erdos, Michiel Adriaens |
| Nadia Pandi MSP | Understanding the molecular mechanisms of pancreatic cancer | Martina Summer-Kutmon |
| Elaine Casey Research Master Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience | Using High Resolution fMRI to Model Auditory Learning | Michelle Moerel |
| Thomas von Rein MSP | Learning and memory: From gene networks to brain activation patterns. | Michelle Moerel, Daan van Beek |
| Bastien Nihant Master Systems Biology | Predicting the metabolic state of the heart using genetic data | Michiel Adriaens |
| Femke Smit Master Systems Biology | Network modeling and simulation of CEACAM6 function in C.albicans-macrophage interaction | Michiel Adriaens |
| Vignesh Shaju MSP | Genetics of memory | Michiel Adriaens, Daan van Beek |
| Lucas Reed MSP | Metabolic Modelling of Cellular Senescence | Marian Breuer |
Student projects 2020/21
| Student/Program | Title | Supervisor |
| Kao Wei Chen | Modeling metabolism in Dilated Cardiomyopathy-using robust Metabolic Transformation Analysis | Michiel Adriaens |
| Dimna Barbosa | Context-specific metabolic modeling of the senescent phenotype in fibroblasts and epithelial cells: a comparative study | Marian Breuer |
| Sonia Balan (MSP, UM) | Improving Constraint-Based Metabolic Models of Cellular Senescence by Making use of Metabolic Tasks (Honor's Programme) | Marian Breuer |
| Yvar Hulshof (MSP, UM) | Adapting context-specific metabolic model construction methods to create representative models using alternate optimal solutions | Marian Breuer, Michiel Adriaens |
| Michalis Papachristos | Mathematical Analysis of Senescent Cell Metabolic Networks through Constraint-Based Modelling and Steady-State Flux Statistics | Marian Breuer |
| Rianne Smit | Association between cardiometabolic drugs and blood metabolome: A cross-sectional study | Pooja Mandaviya |
| Nina Valenbreder MSP, UM | Metabolism along the Gut-Heart Axis (Honour’s Research Programme) | Michiel Adriaens |
| Bram Nap | Context-specific genome-scale metabolic models of the failing human cardiomyocyte show modulation in metabolism | Michiel Adriaens |
| Jip de Kok Master Systems Biology, UM | An evaluation of machine learning models for atopic health outcome prediction using infant gut microbiome data | David Barnett |
| Mitchel Bartels | Functional analysis of the involvement of candidate proteins in mitochondrial dynamics | Mike Gerards |
| Emiel Slaats | Metabolic modeling of senescent cells | Marian Breuer |
| Rita Sarantidou Master Systems Biology, UM | Identifying the key pathways involved in a pearl-necklace like mitochondrial phenotype | Mike Gerards |
| Charlotte Delvaux MSP, UM | Sex-Specific Differences in the Cardiac Metabolism, from Healthy to Heart Failure | Michiel Adriaens |
| Astrid Hofman MSP, UM | Determining the Effect of TTN Variants on Cardiac Metabolism in Dilated Cardiomyopathy | Michiel Adriaens |
| Daniel Kaestner MSP, UM | Explainable State Classification Of Cells Affected By The Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease | Charlie Pieterman |
| Likhitha Puliyadi MSP, UM | Identifying novel mitochondrial DNA replication and maintenance proteins | Mike Gerards |
| Hannah Schultheiss MSP, UM | Studying tinnitus mechanisms through computational modelling | Michelle Moerel |
| Eva Thielecke MSP, UM | Improving the construction and analysis of metabolic models in the context of cellular senescence | Marian Breuer |
| Kabir Arora MSP, UM | Michelle Moerel | |
| Minke Stevens BBS, UM | The effect of auditory category learning on cortical sound representation | Michiel Adriaens |
| Calvin Classon BBS, UM | Creating COVID-19 molecular pathway models for data analysis | Martina Summer-Kutmon |
| Rocheliëne Tokaai BBS, UM | Creating COVID-19 molecular pathway models for data analysis | Martina Summer-Kutmon |
| Nanda Knoops BBS, UM | Understanding the molecular mechanisms of pancreatic cancer | Martina Summer-Kutmon |