The Department of Neurology performs clinical and translational research within three research themes: infection & inflammation, cerebrovasculair disorders, and movement disorders.The themes are imbedded in the nine translational research programs of Amsterdam Neuroscience, the research institute of neuroscience investigators in the Amsterdam area. All staff members of the Department of Neurology are involved in research and collaborate within Neuroscience Amsterdam, with other academic and non-academic hospitals, and with international research groups.

The research of the movement disorders group focuses on improving treatment, diagnosis, and insight in pathophysiology of movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, tremor, myoclonus, and dystonia. The group has a strong clinical research infrastructure to conduct large cohort studies and randomized controlled trials on interventions ranging from medication to botulinum toxin injections and Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), aimed at solving burning clinical questions. Advanced neurophysiological measures and analysis techniques, intraoperative microrecording from nuclei situated deeply in the brain, and (functional) MRI are available to answer important diagnostic and pathophysiological research questions. The group is embedded in the neurodegeneration program of Amsterdam Neuroscience.

The focus of my current research is improving the treatment of patients with movement disorders. Several clinical trials are currently being carried out in which the effects of DBS and Continuous Intrajejunal Levodopa Infusion for advanced Parkinson’s disease are compared, the effect of treatment with botulinum toxin on functional myoclonus is being evaluated and in which the role of serotonergic system in cervical dystonia is being assessed.

My PhD-thesis focussed on another topic: new vascular risk factors. Several studies, mainly concerning the vessel wall characteristics arterial stiffness and intima-media-thickness, were carried out in the Secondary Manifestations of ARTerial disease (SMART) cohort in the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care (UMCU Utrecht).