Lize Cuypers

Lize Cuypers graduated with great distinction in Pharmaceutical Sciences at KU Leuven, Belgium. She has obtained her PhD at the Laboratory of Clinical and Epidemiological Virology at the Rega Institute, KU Leuven, performing research on the diversity and antiviral drug resistance of the hepatitis C virus. Following her PhD, she continued to work as a postdoctoral researchter in the same laboratory, broadening her focus to other bloodborne, mosquito-borne and respiratory viruses; as well as teaching and guiding PhD students. In 2020, she moved from the KU Leuven to the University Hospitals of Leuven, to coordinate the 8 national reference centres (NRCs) of human microbiology that are hosted at UZ/KU Leuven. Among those NRCs, the NRC of mycosis of one of the largest reference centres, for which Lize is involved in the surveillance of all invasive yeast and mould infections, however with a specific interest in the fungal pathogens Candidozyma auris and Aspergillus fumigatus. She is working actively to broadly roll-out NGS approaches within the clinical and research laboratory, supporting public health decision making through integrating genomic surveillance with clinical and epidemiological data.