Diede de Haan completed her PhD under the guidance of Prof. Assaf Gal at the Weizmann Institute. Her doctoral research focused on studying the dynamics and subcellular architecture of silica formation in microalgae. She holds a BSc in Biology from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. During her masters program in Evolutionary Biology, Diede had the opportunity to study at different universities in four countries as part of the Mobility European Master in Evolution. She received a double degree from Uppsala University and Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich.

In her PhD work, Diede used advanced microscopy techniques including live-cell confocal imaging and cryo-electron tomography to understand how silica is formed in microalgae. Key findings of her work uncovered the role of membrane-membrane interactions as novel regulators of silica growth and morphogenesis, as well as an unusual exocytosis mechanism used to secrete large solid cargo. Diede joined the recently established research group of Dr. Thibaut Brunet at the Pasteur Institute, where she will introduce cryo-electron microscopy to study the ancestral architecture of animal cells and tissues. Her work aims to uncover important aspects of cellular evolution.