B. (Babette) Bais, PhD

Current research interests and goals I am a postdoc researcher and clinical epidemiologist working on mental health before, during, and after pregnancy, with a special focus on sleep. It is my goal to make a greater impact in the lives of (pregnant) women and their infants and even that of following generations, to give everyone the best start in life possible.
Previous work As a PhD student, I studied the effect of light therapy on depression during pregnancy. Furthermore, I studied the effects of seasons and the effects of sleep during pregnancy on depressive symptoms. Lastly, I conducted various projects on psychotropic medication before, during, and after pregnancy.

Mental health, depression, sleep, light therapy, psychotropic medication, pregnancy, epidemiology, embryology.

• 2015 - 2020: PhD student. (Thesis: Depression during Pregnancy - Light, Seasons and Sleep.) 
• 2016 - 2018: Evidence Based Practice in Health Care (MSc), University of Amsterdam. 
• 2012 - 2014: Biomedical Sciences (MSc), cum laude, University of Amsterdam.
• 2009 - 2012: Biomedical Sciences (BSc), University of Amsterdam.

A complete overview of publications can be found here:

Babette Bais

Previous studies in the lab have shown that autologous dendritic cells pulsed with allogenic tumor cell lysate was able to induce peripheral T cell activation and tumor-reactive T cell responses in patients with mesothelioma and pancreatic cancer. Current research focuses on how to initiate an effective immune response in the tumor as well as the tumor-draining lymph node using dendritic cell vaccination. Furthermore, we are studying novel approaches for (personalized) vaccination. In addition, we have identified T cell characteristics that underlie clinical efficacy of immune check inhibitors or chemotherapeutic agents in mesothelioma. The selected publications below give an impression of our work. 

• 2020: Nomination VIVA400-list and poster award (Landelijk Kenniscentrum Psychiatrie en Zwangerschap) 
• 2019: Travel grants (Society of Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms, Trust Fund Erasmus MC) 
• 2018: Personal grant (Aarhus University, Denmark)