Natasja – IMAQUA’s new PhD candidate

Introducing Natasja Cox– IMAQUA’s Phd candidate under Baekeland Mandate, granted by VLAIO (Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship organisation)

Natasja obtained her degree in Veterinary Medicine from Ghent University in 2018, specializing in research, livestock and aquatic animals. Her master thesis on necrotic enteritis in poultry was completed at the Laboratory of Pathology, Bacteriology and Poultry Diseases of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Subsequently, she was admitted to the Vlerick Business School and graduated from the Master’s in General Management programme in 2019. She went on to co-found and work at Ziphius Therapeutics.

In 2020, Natasja joined IMAQUA as a PhD candidate. For the upcoming 4 years, she will be working alongside IMAQUA’s and UGent’s scientists on the PhD research project “Development of innovative experimental infection models for economically devastating microbial infections in shrimp”.

This project aims at expanding IMAQUA’s service portfolio to a wider range of microbial infection models as well as contributing to advances in the understanding of the pathogenesis of acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease in shrimp.