Saskia van Henten obtained her dual degree in Medicine and Clinical Research at the University of Utrecht (Selective Utrecht Medical Master) in 2017 after a bachelor degree in liberal arts and sciences. During her Master thesis, she spent 8 months managing a clinical study on visceral leishmaniasis in HIV patients in Ethiopia, under supervision of prof. Johan van Griensven and dr. Ermias Diro.

After spending a year working in the hospital in the department of internal medicine as a physician she started working at ITM as a predoctoral researcher in the unit of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). Gradually, her focus shifted from visceral to cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) , where she started a new research line focusing on improving the evidence base for diagnosis and treatment of CL in Ethiopia. This is the focus of the Phd which was started in 2018 and is planned to be completed in early 2023.

Apart from her Phd, she is involved in teaching in the Short course on evidence based medicine (Screm) and various SORT-IT trainings, and supports the unit with various other research projects on NTDs.