Grants & Honors

• ISSLS Research Grant (2022)
• PUG prize for best PhD thesis in Medicine (2015-2020) – Provinciaal Utrechts Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen
• Bertus Kemp prize for best PhD thesis (2018-2020) – Nederlandse Vereniging voor Matrix Biologie
• Co-applicant H2020 iPSpine
• Faculty of Veterinary Medicine – Best Paper of the Year Award, Veterinary Science Day, the Netherlands (2018)
• TERMIS SYIS Best Research Article Award at the 5th Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society world congress, Japan (2018)
• Best poster award at 4th International Spine Research Symposium, Philadelphia Spine Research Society, Philadelphia, USA (2017)
• Best Presentation at Global Spine Congress, Dubai, UAE (2016)
• AO Spine Research Network Exchange (€7k) and Consortium (€25k) Award (2015)

PhD thesis

Frances obtained her veterinary degree in 2012 from Utrecht University and in 2018 her PhD (cum laude) on intervertebral disc regeneration under the supervision of Prof. dr. Björn Meij (UU, the Netherlands) and Prof. dr. Keita Ito (Eindhoven University of Technology and University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands). She visited the laboratory of Prof. Danny Chan (The University of Hong Kong, China) and Prof. Daisuke Sakai (Tokai University School of Medicine, Japan), which resulted in three joint manuscripts exploring fundamental aspects of disc biology. During her PhD track, Frances has demonstrated that specific juvenile intervertebral disc cells can potentially be used to regenerate the diseased intervertebral disc, a major cause for low back pain. Based on this, the iPSpine Horizon 2020 project was funded. From 2018-2023, Frances executed the role as postdoctoral researcher and supervises (PhD) students (copromotor), performed her own research, wrote scientific articles, grant proposals, work package reports, and deliverables. Furthermore, she disseminated scientific results to the general and scientific audience, e.g. at conferences.

As of 2023, Frances started a new adventure as medical writer at Avania.

Past MSc/BSc student supervision:

• Lucy Verdonschot
• Lisanne Laagland
• Ferdi van Heel
• Caroline Hoogeveen
• Dirk Vestjens
• Bianca Kuster
• Stefan Wouters
• Leili Ghazi
• Anneleen Tuinman
• Lisa Hol
• Sanne Loos
• Janneke Oskam
• Pascal Kamphuis
• Amber van Heezen
• Maxine Lourenburg