Sarah van den Broek

Additional information

Sarah van den Broek is a PhD student in Dr. Garland’s project: "Understanding the impacts of antibiotics from human excreta derived fertilizers on the soil-microbial-plant nexus”. Here, Sarah specialises in antibiotic resistance and changes in soil microbial communities.

Sarah has a MSc in Plant Science from the Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Sarah focused on Bioinformatics and Plant-Microbe-Soil interactions, by conducting two research projects at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW): for the first project, a meta-analysis was conducted to uncover the influence of inorganic and organic fertilisers on both the soil physicochemical properties and the microbial community composition, interactions, and assembly. For the second project, microbial volatile-mediated suppression of the plant parasitic weed Striga hermonthica were investigated. Both of these projects focused on sustainable solutions to conventional treatments, which Sarah is very passionate about. Sarah also worked as a biosafety officer at NIOO-KNAW and wrote permits and safety protocols to work safely with quarantine organisms and GMO's.

Sarah is interested in finding sustainable alternatives for conventional agricultural practices, while focusing on Health & Safety. Sarah is also the biosafety office of Dr. Garland's SEAL group.