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Catherina J. M (Karen) Koning, PhD studied Health Sciences, specializing in Biological Health Sciences, at Maastricht University. After obtaining her masters degree in 2001, she worked as a research assistant at the Academic Anxiety Centre, PMS Vijverdal, where she studied deep brain stimulation in patients with therapy resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder. In 2002 she started working at the R&D department of Winclove Probiotics on ‘The effect of probiotics on the intestinal microbiota and immune parameters after treatment with antibiotics’, resulting in her thesis in 2010. For this project she was detached as a PhD student at the research school for Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism (NUTRIM) of the Maastricht University Medical Centre, where she worked at the department of Internal Medicine, division Gastroenterology-Hepatology and the department of Medical Microbiology. From 2008 until 2010 she studied the effect of a multispecies probiotic on hypersensitivity in IBS patients at the department of Internal Medicine, division Gastroenterology-Hepatology. Currently, she is working as Global Education Manager & Senior Scientist at Winclove Probiotics. In her current position she is responsible for translating science into marketing and vice versa and for the dissemination of Wincloves’ in-house scientific knowledge of probiotics. As such she often gives lectures at national and international conferences, symposia and workshops about the role of the microbiota in health and disease and the possibilities for microbiota management.