Mathijs Vleugel received his PhD training at Utrecht University (The Netherlands), where he investigated the molecular evolution of cell cycle regulation under the supervision of Prof. Geert Kops. After obtaining his PhD in 2014, Mathijs did his post-doctoral research in the group of Prof. Marileen Dogterom at the University of Technology in Delft. During this period, he worked on the in vitro reconstitution of mitotic spindles using microfluidic technologies. Mathijs joined Nature Protocols in January 2017 and was promoted to Senior Editor in June 2018.