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Academisch Medisch Cenlrum

To Whom It May Concern,

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Frank Baas, MD, PhD Professor of Neurogenetics Head of Laboratory for Genome Analysis Academie Medical Center/University of Amsterdam, K2-217 P.O. Box 227001100 DE Amsterdam , The Netherlands phone +31-205663846/ fax +31-205669312 e-mail: F.Baas@amc.uva.nl

Amsterdam, January 28, 2012

It is a great pleasure to support Ms Nawal Bahia elldirssi as candidate for the NWO Mozaik grant. For over a year Nawal has been working as a research assistant at my department of Neurogenetics at the Academic Medical Center (AMC) in Amsterdam. She worked on two projects (1) The role of the innate immune system in neurodegeneration in Amyotrophic lateral sc!erosis (ALS) and (2) The role of complement in nerve damage in Leprosy. Nawal has distinguished herself by her very good practical skilIs and her great insight and interest into her work. She has proven to be an intelligent and hard-working research assistant. 50 far she has performed solid results that resulted in a publication. Also, Nawal has given good input on how to proceed with experiments within her project, indicating her capability to perform research on her own, like a PhD student. At the personal level Nawal has been a very pleasant person to work with. She is a bright, interactive, independent and ambitious person who has shown a great motivation for her work. I\lawal has put in many efforts to perform her experiments the best way possible. Also she was not easily discouraged by less successful results. Overall, Nawal definitely belongs to the top 10 students I have seen in the past 10 years . I am happy to provide you with any additional informayon.