Willem an Wamel earned his doctoral degree in microbiology from the Eijkman Winkler Institute for Microbiology, Infectious Diseases, and Inflammation at the University of Utrecht in Utrecht, The Netherlands; the topic of his doctoral thesis was “Regulation of Virulence Factors in Staphylococci.” In addition, he completed postdoctoral work and research there, as well as at the Laboratory of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunology at Rockefeller University in New York, New York, and Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Willem van Wamel’s current areas of research interest include the pathogenesis of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) in particular the difficult to treat chronic infection caused by this microorganism.

In order to understand the process leading to these biofilm associated infections, in his group strategies were developed to monitor in vivo/ex vivo expression of virulence factors but also ways to monitor (real-time) the metabolic status of biofilms associated bacteria. This setup makes it possible to study the sensitivity of biofilms of S. aureus towards clinically relevant antibiotics. Currently his group is developing protocols to mimic the in vivo conditions during endocarditis, LVAD driveline-, and foreign body infections so in the future better treatment strategies can be designed.