Who are the people behind Luminex? Anke Hoefnagels is a Field Applications Specialist supporting Global Partner Operations who celebrated her second anniversary with Luminex on January 1st. When Anke isn’t working out of the Den Bosch office in The Netherlands, you’ll find her traveling or improving her musicality.
How did you come to work at Luminex?
For my masters, I developed a ChIP-seq assay to elucidate the role of the HNF1B transcription factor in regulating magnesium levels in the kidney. Once the assay was optimized, I looked for additional research questions that the method could be used to address. My mentor pointed out to me that most scientists ask research questions and then find the appropriate technique – but I operated in the opposite manner. At that moment, I came to understand that I enjoyed the methodical troubleshooting required for assay development.
What’s a typical day for you?
For the past two years, I’ve worked as a Technical Support Associate. Technical Support at Luminex operates in a follow-the-sun model, meaning my colleagues from Asia, The Netherlands, and Austin all work as a single team to provide 24-hour support to customers.
As each European country speaks a different language, we tend to communicate in English as a common language. For this reason, the majority of our customer cases are submitted via email versus phone calls. The benefit of primarily receiving email cases is that customers often attach the Support Utility files, enabling us to have a better understanding of the issue at hand.
On January 1st, I started a new position as a Field Applications Specialist (FAS) and I support Luminex Partners located in Europe. As an FAS, I help new customers to adopt, and existing customers to optimize, their Luminex assays.
Tell us something about science or medicine in The Netherlands.
A hot topic in The Netherlands at the moment is the use of antibiotics. To prevent antibiotic-resistant bacteria, The Netherlands has a very strict policy on antibiotic use. I recently had an ear infection and had to visit the doctor multiple times before an antibiotic was prescribed. While this was a personal inconvenience, I think antibiotic stewardship is important, given the increasing emergence of resistant bacteria.
When you’re not working, how do you spend your time?
Traveling! This year I went to Thailand and earned my diving certificate. I also went on a night safari in the jungle and saw amazing snakes. Last year, I went to Indonesia and climbed down into the crater of the Ijen Volcano on Java. The trek up was specifically at night to be able to see the sulfur gas burning as blue fire – it was quite an adventure!
I’m currently taking a musical orientation course where I will play approximately 20 instruments. Growing up I could never choose an instrument, so my goal of this course is to select an instrument and learn how to play it. So far I’ve played: piano, accordion, clarinet, saxophone, oboe, flute, trumpet, guitar, and drums!
