Dr Simone van Breda (S.G.J.)

Simone G.J. van Breda studied Environmental Health Sciences at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Maastricht University, where she graduated in 2000. In 2004, she received her PhD at Maastricht University, after 4 years of investigating the effects of vegetables on gene expression changes in the colon and lung at the Department of Health Risk Analyses and Toxicology. 
After she finished her PhD, she received a fellowship “Talent for the Future” from the Faculty of Health Sciences, to work as a postdoctoral fellow for a period of ten months. During this appointment, she has worked at the Human Nutrition Research Centre at the lab of Prof.dr. John C. Mathers, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. Next, she was appointed as a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Health Risk Analyses and Toxicology of Maastricht University within an EU Network of Excellence on Environmental Carcinogenesis, Nutrition and Individual Susceptibility (ECNIS). Subsequently, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow supported by the EU 6th Framework Integrated Project Newborns and Genotoxic exposure risks (NewGeneris); by the Transnational University Limburg (Tul); and, by the EU 7th Framework Program Project Detection of Endpoints and Biomarkers of Repeated Dose Toxicity using in vitro systems (DETECTIVE)
In 2011, she was appointed as an Assistant Professor at the department of Toxicogenomics, which was transformed into the Department of Translational Genomics (TGX) in 2024.

Main research interests:
- Chemopreventive action of fruits and vegetables in general, and of phytochemicals in particular;
- Role of individual susceptibility in cancer risk assessment.
- Gene expression regulation by epigenetic mechanisms;
- Molecular mechanisms in colorectal and liver cancer, particularly related to dietary habits and environmental exposures;

Since December 2008, Simone is registered as a toxicologist by the Netherlands Society of Toxicology and by the Federation of European Toxicologists & European Societies of Toxicology (Eurotox).