Dr. Wendy W.J.van de Sande

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Wendy W.J. van de Sande is Associate Professor at the Department of Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases of Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Since 2001, Wendy van de Sande collaborated with the Mycetoma Research Centre. Wendy van de Sande is fellow of the European Confederation of Medical Mycology and member of the steering committee of the Global Mycetoma Working Group and convener of the eumycetoma working group under the umbrella of the International Society of Human and Animal Mycoses.  She is also vice-chair of the Skin NTD subgroup of the WHO Diagnostic Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases.

The research of Wendy van de Sande focusses on the development of novel diagnostic tools for mycetoma as well as the identification of novel drugs for fungal mycetoma. She developed DNA isolation methods, classical and isothermal molecular identification tools to identify mycetoma causative agents to the species level and typing techniques such as MmySTR to be able to study the world-wide epidemiology of Madurella mycetomatis, the main causative agent of human mycetoma.

To identify novel drugs for mycetoma she developed in vitro susceptibility assays and invertebrate infection models. She demonstrated that M. mycetomatis was most susceptible towards ravuconazole, the drug currently investigated in the DNDi sponsored clinical trial. She is also co-founder of the Mycetoma Open Source Drug discovery platform (MycetOS) in which chemists and biologists jointly develop new medication for eumycetoma.