Ruud Hendrikus Petrus Wilbers was born on the 11th of October 1983 in Tegelen, The Netherlands. He graduated from the high school Valuas College In Venlo in 2002. Thereafter he joined the BSc program Biology at Wageningen University (Wageningen, The Netherlands) and specialised himself in animal biology. After obtaining his BSc degree in 2005 he continued his studies at Wageningen University with the MSc program Biology. During his MSc program he studied the development of T-cells in common carp under the supervision of Dr. ir. Jan Rombout of the Laboratory of Cell Biology and Immunology at Wageningen University. He spent half a year at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology (Oxford, United Kingdom) working on ‘the role of cytolethal distending toxin in Helicobacter hepaticus mediated intestinal inflammation in mice’ under the supervision of Dr. Kevin Maloy. At the Laboratory of Nematology at Wageningen University he investigated the plant-based expression of human interleukin-10 under the supervision of Dr. ir. Arjen Schots and worked on the role of venom allergen-like proteins in plant-nematode interactions under the supervision of Dr. ir. Geert Smant. In 2008 he obtained his MSc degree in Biology with the specialisation in ‘animal biology’ and his MSc degree in Plant Biotechnology with a specialisation in ‘plants for human and animal health’. Within the Laboratory of Nematology he joined the group of Dr. ir. Arjen Schots as a PhD and continued to do research on plant-based production of (potential) biopharmaceuticals and other immunologically interesting proteins. On the 23rd of October 2015 he defended his PhD thesis. As of 2019, he holds a permanent position as assistant professor at the Laboratory of Nematology and his research focuses on the interaction between host and helminth parasites, development of vaccines, with special emphasis on the role of glycosylation.