Meet Young Researchers!
Pol Grootswagers – PhD Wageningen University & Research
Background Ageing research now seems to exist of two different disciplines: (1) slowing down / preventing ageing, and (2) improving quality of life of aged people. Sometimes, this leads to conflicting messages. For instance, to slow down ageing one can argue that lowering protein intake is an effective strategy, while this strategy would hamper the goals of discipline 2. A challenging goal for the [...]
Marieke van der Heiden – OIO
Background: Several studies indicate reduced immune responses towards infectious diseases and vaccinations in the elderly, which is mainly caused by immunological ageing. Research description: Within my PhD project, we are investigating whether timely vaccinations in middle-aged individuals are successful to circumvent the deleterious effects of immunosenescence and possibly increase the memory immunity in the elderly. We aim to gain insight into the immunological fitness of [...]
Evie van der Spoel, Phd-student
Background My name is Evie van der Spoel (1992) and I am currently a PhD student at the section Gerontology and Geriatrics (Internal Medicine department) of the Leiden University Medical Center. I studied Biomedical Sciences in Leiden and in January 2016 I started my PhD project under supervision of Diana van Heemst, Gerard Jan Blauw, and Hanno Pijl. My research topic Maintenance and repair is [...]
Niels van der Geest, MD PhD
My research I have been investigating the impact of aging on the human immune system. My work has focused on T and B cell aging, and its implications for the development of autoimmune diseases in the elderly. During my time as a PhD student (promotor prof. dr. A. Mieke H. Boots), I have built up a prospective cohort of healthy, elderly individuals. Currently, we have [...]