Spotlight on Jaco Verweij

ECTMIH 2023 Strategic Committee: Jaco Verweij

This week we met with ECTMIH 2023 Strategic Committee member Dr Jaco Verweij to hear about his work and his hopes for this year's Congress:

Jaco earned his PhD degree at Leiden University in the Netherlands on “Molecular tools in the diagnosis of intestinal parasitic infections”. 

His principle areas of interest are infectious diseases, intestinal parasites, soil transmitted helminths, Strongyloides, (molecular) diagnostics, epidemiology, coinfection, zoonotic infections, capacity building, technology transfer, teaching.

For more than 20 years, Jaco worked in the Department of Parasitology of Leiden University Medical Center on the development, validation and implementation of new diagnostic tools, molecular methods in particular. He has a passion for teaching and is a strong advocate for technology transfer and capacity building in the countries suffering the most from parasitic diseases.

Since 2012, he has held a position as medical molecular microbiologist and parasitologist in the Laboratory for Medical Microbiology and Immunology of the Elisabeth Hospital in Tilburg, the Netherlands.

Jaco serves on the Strategic Committee and the Scientific Committee.

Some key takeaways from Jaco:

The rationale for planetary health as the overarching focus of ECTMIH2023 

A planetary health focus is a very logical evolution for this meeting; when you're working on one piece of a puzzle, for example in infectious disease, it's important to see the overall context, and this is exactly what a planetary health focus provides.

Topics that Jaco would like to see covered in the ECTMIH 2023 programme

Whether in the infectious disease track, or in any of the tracks, it's good to go out and meet people that are working on other pieces of the puzzle, as most research doesn't exist in a vacuum. The interaction with people working in different disciplines can provide very useful insights.

Jaco's personal message to anyone thinking of attending ECTMIH 2023

We, in the ECTMIH 2023 team will do our utmost to provide a diverse and interesting programme, with opportunities to learn and to make connections.  We cannot do that without our delegates and we all hope that you will come and make this conference a success.

Check out the full interview with Jaco here: