Coussens Griet

"Hi all, I’m Griet Coussens and live with my husband and kids in Wielsbeke. In my free time I like walking, biking and running. But I also enjoy working in the garden, and harvesting some home-grown vegetables, it gives me energy. In 2006, I finished my studies Bachelor Agro and Biotechnology at VIVES Roeselare after I did my thesis in the lab of Marcelle Holsters at PSB. In september of that year I started working for 4 months at LEGEST (UGent; Lab of Guy Haegheman) but I came back to the ‘roots’ in January 2007 and started working in the lab of Mieke Van Lijsebettens to set up the maize transformation platform at PSB. After 2 years of trial and error - in the meantime Stijn Aesaert also joined the team - we were very happy with our first transgenic maize plant. From then on we started to set up a transformation facility for PSB researchers. We worked together with groups in the Center and other labs in Europe. In 2017, Laurens Pauwels, joined our team and took over the lead from Mieke. Till now, we are writing a successful transformation story. With customers around the world. In all these years, methods were improved a lot with the techniques still changing and making our work challenging. For example, we introduced digital PCR as a method in the lab, which I'm developing and coordinating. Most important over all these years: I still love the job and the team!"