Chris is leading the Department of Bioinformatics - BiGCaT at Maastricht University, which he started in 2001. His main research interest is to use bioinformatics approaches in systems biology to integrate experimental data and current knowledge. To evaluate genomics data we developed pipelines that start with quality control, filtering and normalization. These and other pipelines are part of a new systems biology infrastructure called dbNP (dbnp.org). Data is statistically analyzed with respect to the study questions and studied for patterns, gene clusters and profiles. After coupling through genome databases the results can be understood in the context of existing domain specific biological knowledge.
To collect and structure it we developed wikipathways.org and a pathway analysis tool, pathvisio.org. With these, content is developed and used that is specific for research in the nutrition, cardiovascular and toxicology domains, and we store experimental profiles based on these.
New technology continuously offers new challenges and chances. We try to integrate results along the full expression pipeline, from genetic variation via epigenomic imprinting and transcription and translation regulation up to protein modifications. These analyses are coupled to knowledge integration, for instance for regulatory pathways, which can be derived from literature mining.
Chris intensively collaborates with researchers from all over the world, which is why it sometimes says ?we? here. He is a member of the council of the Nutrigenomics Organization (NuGO) for which he coordinates the bioinformatics analysis in their proof of principle studies and for the research focus teams. He is a council member of the Research School for Nutrition and Toxicology (NUTRIM). Chris studied Molecular Sciences, focusing on Biochemical Toxicology and Philosophy. He started his career in toxicological research, where he learned to always look for the unexpected and to value the usefulness of models.
Specialties: Bioinformatics, Genomics, Systems Biology