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Carel Thijs, MD, PhD
Carel Thijs was trained as a medical doctor, epidemiologist and physician in Public Health. His main research interest is lifecourse epidemiology in the domains of allergy, infections and overweight. He inititiated the KOALA-study and coordinates its many projects and supervises the PhD-fellows and collaborating researchers.
Further information: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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John Penders, PhD
From 2002 until 2007 John Penders worked as a PhD student at the department of Epidemiology of Maastricht University. His PhD research project focused on the role of the intestinal microbiota composition on the development of atopic manifestations in infancy within the KOALA cohort.
Currently he has a joint appointment as a postdoctoral fellow as the departments of Epidemiology and Medical Microbiology of Maastricht University. Within the KOALA cohort he is currently involved in the home-visits at age 6-7 years. Furthermore, his research on the gut microbiota is ongoing and currently focuses on the influence of host-microbial interactions on the development of allergies and asthma.

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Monique Mommers, PhD
Monique Mommers is a biologist and epidemiologist and is appointed as assistant professor at the Department of Epidemiology of Maastricht University. She was already interested in childhood asthma before she became a member of the KOALA team in 2005. Her research focuses around the role of infections and vitamins (especially vitamin D) in asthma development. Next to this she is also interested in how weight (gain) and physical activity influence asthma and lung function in children.

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Annette Stafleu, PhD
Annette Stafleu is project leader at TNO Quality of Life in Zeist. Together with colleagues of TNO and Maastricht University she has set up the KOALA subproject lifestyle and weight. For this purpose, data has been collected of children at the age of 4-5 years and 6-7 years. Thanks to the enthusiastic collaboration of the KOALA participants she has collected valuable information on food intake, physical activity and anthropometry, also in early infancy. She hopes that this research helps to understand which factors influence weight development of children.

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Lucy van de Vijver, PhD
Lucy van de Vijver is nutritionist and epidemiologist. As a senior researcher she is involved in research in the area of product quality and health at the Louis Bolk Institute, a research Institute for organic agriculture, nutrition and health care. Within the KOALA-study she performs research into the health effects of organic food and related lifestyle factors. This research is a continuation of the PhD work of Ischa Kummeling. Recently a new questionnaire was developed with colleagues of Maastricht University and currently data are being collected. She is interested to find an answer to the question whether or not organic food can play a role in preventing health complaints, more specific, might it help in reducing eczema and allergic problems.

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Pieter Dagnelie, PhD

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Stef Kremers, PhD
Stef Kremers graduated in 1998 in Health Education and he is currently working as assistant professor in the Department of Health Promotion at Maastricht University. After receiving his PhD following a study on smoking behaviour of adolescents, he now performs his research on the prevention of overweight in various target groups (children, adolescents, young adults and recently retired). He is specifically interested in determinants of unhealthy dietary behaviour and sedentary behaviour in these target groups. This knowledge is applied in the development of interventions to assist people in adopting healthy dietary patterns and a more active lifestyle.

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Marion Koopmans, DVM,PhD

Marion Koopmans has completed her training in Veterinary Medicine at the Utrecht University, Veterinary Faculty. She worked as associate professor at the same Faculty to become a specialist in Large Animal Internal Medicine and Nutrition. In parallel, she did a PhD in Veterinary Sciences (Virology; 1990), studying novel enteric viruses and their importance as pathogens for cattle. She continued to study enteric viruses during a fellowship and as visiting scientist at the Centers for Disease Control from 1991 until 1994, and returned to The Netherlands to become section chief of the enteric virus group at the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). She is coordinator of a European research and surveillance network on enteric viruses, and since 2000 holds the chair of the Virology division of the Diagnostic Laboratory for Infectious Diseases at RIVM. Her responsibilities include reference diagnostics, syndromic surveillance and emergency preparedness for viral diseases, including research aimed at improving the response capacity of a public health lab. In 2006 she was appointed as professor of Public Health Virology at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

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Jessica Gubbels, PhD

Jessica Gubbels is working as a researcher at the Department of Health Promotion of Maastricht University. The main focus of her research is to examine environmental influences on dietary intake, physical activity and weight status of young children, aged zero to seven years old, in order to inform future preventive interventions.

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Ester Sleddens, Mphil

Ester Sleddens is working as a PhD student at the Department of Health Promotion of Maastricht University. The aim of her project is to investigate the impact of parents on the development of dietary and physical activity habits and excessive weight gain from age 0-10. Empirical research in this field is still in its infancy. Results will directly foster the development of evidence-based intervention programs to promote exercise and healthy eating and to prevent obesity in young children.

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Marianne Eijkemans, MD

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Carolina Moltó Puigmartí, PhD

Carolina Moltó Puigmartí graduated in Pharmacy in 2005. Until 2010 she worked as a PhD student at the Department of Nutrition and Food Science of the University of Barcelona (Spain). Her PhD focused on the study of nutrients in human milk. She explored physiological and genetic factors influencing the fatty acid composition of breast milk. Furthermore, she assessed the effects of storage and processing of human milk, as done in neonatal units and human milk banks, on milk fatty acids and vitamins. Currently she is working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Epidemiology of Maastricht University. Within the KOALA-study she aims at assessing the role of genes and diet of mother and child on the development of childhood overweight and other risk factors of cardiovascular disease. The final aim of her research is to contribute to develop strategies for the prevention of overweight and other cardiovascular risk factors in early life.

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Catherine A Mbakwa, PhD

Catherine A Mbakwa is working as a PhD student at the department of Epidemiology of Maastricht University. She was born in Limbe (Cameroon) and studied Microbiology (BSc) at the University of Buea (Cameroon) and Biostatistics (MSc) at the Hasselt University (Belgium). One of her dreams has always been to carry out health-related research work, which she is now trying to make true as a member of the KOALA team. She is currently investigating the association of the gut microbiota and the development of overweight in young children.