[3][4] Brussaard was educated at University of Groningen (RUG), The Netherlands, studying marine biology, and microbial ecology.

She was awarded a Marie Curie TMR-grant supplied by the EC for 2 year Post Doctoral research at the University of Bergen, Norway.

She became a senior research scientist at the NIOZ in 2003,[5] and obtained a special chair in Viral Ecology in the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in 2013.

[3] She investigates the importance of microbial (phytoplankton and bacteria) cell death rates[7] and its consequences for the pelagic biogeochemical cycling (carbon, nutrients including iron), as well as isolation of novel algae-infecting viruses (e.g. viruses infecting Phaeocystis belonging to the recently named large-genome Mimiviridae family).

[10] Additionally she has developed methods for the rapid detection[11] and enumeration of viruses, and for measuring cell lysis[12] rates as a consequence of viral infections.