Question: what's the thing your dying to find out?

Suzan Kors answered on 26 Nov 2020:

I want to discover something that will help patients, improve their lives!
My research focusses on peroxisomes, cell compartments/organelles, which are small ‘dots’, surrounded my a lipid membrane/layer. Inside the peroxisomes fats are broken down for energy (for instance those present in peanut butter) and other fats are made, important for the nervous system (myelin sheaths).
Patients in which peroxisomes are not working well, have often neurological problems – difficulty with moving, hearing and eye problems, and the symptoms get worse over time. The patients are often very young.
My research is more focussed on discovering how peroxisomes work. At the moment I am not directly studying peroxisomal disorders. But I hope that what I discover can be used to develop medication that improve the symptoms of patients.