Dr. S.A. (Stefan) Boers

In 2005, I began my career as a microbiological technician at the Regional Laboratory of Public Health in Haarlem, where over time I combined my work with pursuing a master's degree in ‘Biomolecular Sciences’ at VU University in Amsterdam, which I completed cum laude in 2012. I then started a PhD project at the Erasmus MC, where in 2018 I successfully defended my dissertation titled "Microbiota Analysis – from Research Tool to Diagnostic Applications."

After obtaining my doctorate, I continued my career at the LUMC, where I was first trained as a Medical Microbiological Researcher (MMO) and later completed the Medical Molecular Microbiologist (MMM) program. Currently, together with my colleagues Dr. Els Wessels and Dr. Eric Claas, I am responsible the molecular diagnostics of infectious diseases at the LUMC, and I have been the vice-chair of the Working Group on Molecular Diagnostics of Infectious Diseases (WMDI) since 2020.

My research focuses on developing groundbreaking clinical applications using advanced sequencing technologies. In my dissertation, I introduced MYcrobiota, an innovative platform that enables the identification of bacterial pathogens directly from clinical samples, without relying on traditional culture-based methods. This platform is now used weekly in our ISO 15189-accredited laboratory, where it contributed to improved patient care.

Currently, I am working on expanding MYcrobiota to also identify eukaryotic pathogens. In addition, I am focusing on the implementation of nanopore sequencing technologies and the automation of both short-read sequencing (Illumina) and long-read sequencing (nanopore). I collaborate with leading researchers (within international consortia) and am actively involved in PhD projects aimed at advancing innovation in medical microbiology.