Current team members
Sylvia Brugman
Associate Professor Host Microbe Interactomics at Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
About Sylvia
Associate professor
“Being part of this chronic pain team and discussing pain from different viewpoints with different people, made me realize that I know very little about pain in the animal model I use in my research: the zebrafish. For genotyping processes, we used to clip part of the fin to obtain DNA, to see whether the fish had a mutation or not. I never realized that hours after this finclip, that occurs under general anesthesia, my fish still behave differently (as seen by their reduced swimming behavior). I searched for alternatives to this finclipping method and adopted a method to gently swab the skin of my fish to obtain the DNA. This works perfectly, I do not have to clip part of their fin, and the fish are not experiencing pain! Being part of this team has broadened my knowledge, increased my collaboration skills and changed me as an academic.”
– Sylvia Brugman
Affiliations
Wageningen University and Research, Animal Sciences Group, Host Microbe Interactomics, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
dr. S (Sylvia) Brugman – WUR
Profile
All organisms on earth need to find a way to interact with the world they live in. In particular, the interaction with the numerous microbes that live in and on our bodies pose a complex challenge. On the one hand, beneficial species that protect pathogens from colonizing and help us digest food should be tolerated, while on the other hand, those that can cause disease must be eliminated or suppressed. One of the surfaces that is faced with this dichotomy is the intestinal surface. In our group we make use of the zebrafish as a model to interrogate pathways involved in controlling bacterial colonization at the intestinal surface. The zebrafish is a unique model in that it is exposed to the outside world from fertilization onwards. Development of the animal and its immune system goes hand in hand with bacterial colonization. Disturbances of this development might lead to dysbiosis and increased susceptibility to disease later in life. What cells and mediators are involved in establishing homeostasis in the intestine? What are the influences of feed, antibiotics or pollutants on the microbiota and disease susceptibility? In what way does dysbiosis contribute to disease susceptibility?
Publications
OrchID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9955-0552
Pure: https://research.wur.nl/en/persons/sylvia-brugman/publications/
Yoeri van de Burgt
Associate Professor at Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.
About Yoeri
Associate professor
“The outreach activities have changed my perspective in two main ways. First I have learned that chronic pain is something very difficult to grasp, almost mythical. Everyone has a different view or definition on this topic and patients also certainly do not always agree on how to define this. The term is almost too broad to be defined. However, we learned that by learning each other’s language it is possible to be able to define it and with that hopefully how to help these people with chronic pain. The second part is closely related to this, as I have changed my perspective on communication itself, learning it is essential to be able to understand each other to be able to work in a multidisciplinary team.”
– Yoeri van de Burgt
Affiliations
Microsystems, Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.
VAN DE BURGT GROUP – Neuromorphic engineering | materials devices and applications (tue.nl)
Profile
Yoeri van de Burgt obtained his PhD degree at Eindhoven University of Technology in 2014. He then briefly worked at a high-tech startup in Switzerland, after which he obtained a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University (USA) with prof. Alberto Salleo.
Since November 2016 he has returned to Eindhoven University of Technology where he is leading the Neuromorphic Engineering group within the Mechanical Engineering department, and as part of the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS) and the newly established Eindhoven A.I. Systems Institute (EAISI). He obtained his tenure in 2019 and was promoted to associate professor in 2021. Yoeri has been a visiting professor at the University of Cambridge (U.K.) in 2017 and to Georgia Tech (U.S.) in 2022.
Yoeri was a member of the Eindhoven Young Academy since 2019 and was the chair between 2021 and 2022. In 2019 he was selected as MIT innovator under 35 Europe. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Groningen Cognitive Systems and Materials Center at the University of Groningen and since 2021 he is the Focus Area co-chair for neuromorphic computing at the Henrik Casimir Institute of TU/e. Yoeri serves on the Editorial Board of IOP Neuromorphic Computing and Engineering and is an associate editor for Frontiers in Neuroscience: Neuromorphic Engineering.
Publications
Website Van de Burgt Group: Publications – VAN DE BURGT GROUP (tue.nl)
OrchID: Yoeri van de Burgt (0000-0003-3472-0148) – ORCID
Contact information
Tessa van Charldorp
Associate Professor Language & Communication. Initiator & coordinator minor and master medical humanities, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
About Tessa
Associate professor
“Teaching about chronic pain to students from all over the world made me aware that chronic pain can be studied from even more perspectives. Not only research perspectives are relevant, but also cultural perspectives, personal perspectives and age-related perspectives. Also, our appearance at the Betweter festival made me realize that everyone has a story to tell about pain. Metaphors are created so easily to be able to talk about pain – both offline and online.”
– Tessa van Charldorp
Affiliations
Languages, Literature and Communication, Faculty of Humanities, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Dr. Tessa van Charldorp – Universiteit Utrecht (uu.nl)
Profile
Tessa van Charldorp is associate professor language and communication at the department of Languages, Literature and Communication at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She is also coordinator for the interdisciplinary minor Medical Humanities at the Faculty of Humanities and program coordinator for the master Medical Humanities at the Faculty of Medicine at Utrecht University. She is the chair of the Dutch Association of Applied Linguistics (Anéla). Her research is mostly concerned with talk in interaction. She focuses mainly on talk in the health domain: bedside talk at the children’s hospital, triage telephone conversations to the out-of-hours GP office, or consults at the internal medicine clinic. She publishes in language, communication and medical journals about her research. She is particularly interested in interdisciplinary research and teaching projects that concern health related issues.
Publications
UU website: Publications – Dr. Tessa van Charldorp – Utrecht University (uu.nl)
Contact information
Jannie de Grauw
Senior lecturer and specialist in veterenary anaestesia and analgesia, EBVS and RCVS, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands AND University of London, London, United Kingdom.
About Jannie
Assistant professor
“I think what has struck me most, is that I only truly discovered the meaning of the saying “acute pain is about how the pain feels to you, while chronic pain is about how the pain makes you feel” through our project, particularly when interacting with visitors of the Betweter Festival. Chronic pain can mean so many different things to different people. One lady mentioned it was almost like a constant companion to her, but one that nobody else ever saw, more or less like an invisible and uninvited ‘friend’. She had come to reluctantly embrace that ‘friend’ over the years and found that since she considered her pain like this, she found it easier to live with. That is definitely an aspect of chronic pain that I never quite felt communicated to me as profoundly before.”
– Janny de Grauw
Affiliations
Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands AND Clinical Sciences and Services, Royal Veterinary College, University of London, London, United Kingdom.
Dr. J.C. (Janny) de Grauw – Universiteit Utrecht (uu.nl)
Profile
Janny de Grauw is a veterinarian with a PhD in synovial joint homeostasis. She is a European board certified specialist in veterinary anaesthesia and analgesia (Dip. ECVAA). She works as a senior lecturer in Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia at the Royal Veterinary College London, and currently holds a distance research association as a senior post-doc at the Utrecht University Department of Clinical Sciences.
Embedded in the Utrecht University Regenerative Medicine Stem cells and Cancer focus area, she takes a special interest in joint inflammation, pain and pharmacological management thereof in human and animal patients. Recently, the recognition, neurobiology and management of chronic pain in animals (and humans) has become a focus of Janny’s research, which has been awarded a ZonMW MKMD Syrcle grant, a Morris Animal Foundation grant and a Centre for Unusual Collaborations grant.
Publications
Contact information
Frank Meye
Principal researcher at Brain Center, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
About Frank
Associate professor
“The outreach activities brought me more into contact with patients suffering from chronic pain. Their stories further increased my awareness of the burden this condition directly places on people, but also of the indirect problems it causes. Dealing with chronic pain can lead to the adoption of various coping strategies, and some of these can ben in themselves become quite problematic (e.g. excessive intake of comforting food/addictive substances). The outreach activities thus helped highlight that chronic pain is really a multi-factorial problem, with both direct and indirect components that need to be addressed.”
– Frank Meye
Affiliations
Department of Translational Neuroscience, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Research (meyelab.net) AND dr. F.J. (Frank) Meye – UMC Utrecht
Profile
Neurophysiologist doing research on the brain’s reward system in health and disease. Current focus on effects of stress on the (extended) dopamine neural circuitry, in relation to obesity, eating disorders and drug addiction.
Side activities
- Committee member of ZonMW Open Competition funding program.
- Member of UMCU Young Academy
- Member of Dutch Neuroscience Meeting Organization Board
- Member of the UMCU Internationalization Committee
Publications
Website UMCU: Publications – Translational Neuroscience
Contact information
Mienke Rijsdijk
Anesthesiologist-pain specialist, Medical head of pain management, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
About Mienke
Anesthesiologist-pain specialist, Medical head of pain management
“I have realized that chronic pain is not just a medical problem with psychological effects and interactions. Our view on chronic pain is also influenced by historical perspectives, the words we use, societal receptiveness, cultural habits and more, making interdisciplinary research on this topic the only way forward.”
– Mienke Rijsdijk
Affiliations
Pain Clinic, Department of Anesthesiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Mienke Rijsdijk – UMC Utrecht
Profile
Chronic pain has been included in the list of chronic diseases by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2019, recognizing it as a disease in its own right. My ambition is to help patients with misunderstood or untreatable pain by conducting scientific research into new ways to determine the cause of pain (pain diagnostics) and treat it. By listening carefully to patients, I hope to reach a solution to pain together with the patient and in a multidisciplinary team.
Focus areas
- Postherpetic neuralgia
- (Chronic) postoperative pain
- Pain after intensive care
- Pain measurement tools
Publications
UMCU website: dr. M. (Mienke) Rijsdijk – UMC Utrecht
Contact information
Madelijn Strick
Associate Professor Social Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
About Madelijn
Associate professor
“What really surprised me while conducting the outreach activities was that almost all people in some way or another deal with chronic pain, either because they suffer from it themselves or because they have family members, classmates or friends who suffer from it. When preparing for the GHIS fellowship, for example, I feared that our students in their 20s would have little affinity for the subject, but they were actually very interested, precisely because many were already directly or indirectly affected by it. It made me realize how much hidden suffering there is from chronic pain in my direct environment.”
– Madelijn Strick
Affiliations
Social, Health, and Organizational Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Dr. Madelijn Strick – Utrecht University (uu.nl)
Profile
My main scientific objective is to increase the connection between science and society to solve sustainability problems of any kind and magnitude.
I am an expert on social influence, communication, and behavioral change. In addition, as a side project, I study the social impact of humor.
I am co-founder of the IMPACTLAB, where we help science communicators to test the impact of their communications on the public’s knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. I am also societal impact director of the Kurt Lewin Institute and fellow of the Open Science Programme.
Publications
Personal website: Publications | Madelijn Strick
Contact information
Hanneke Willemen
Scientific researcher chronic pain, Center for Translational Immunology (CTI), University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
About Hanneke
Assistant professor
“The outreach activities make me again realize how many people suffer from chronic pain. For example, in the Graduate Honours Seminars, students interviewed people with chronic pain. Unfortunately, it was not difficult for them to find those patients, they even interviewed young peer-students/friends. Also, during the Betweterfestival people could indicate on a mannequin the region of the body that often hurts with red stickers. At the end of the evening there were many red spots, and interestingly those were different for the male and female mannequin, indicating the importance to include gender in pain research.”
– Hanneke Willemen
Affiliations
Center for Translational Immunology (CTI), University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
dr. ir. H.L.D.M. Willemen – UMC Utrecht
Profile
Hanneke Willemen was born on March 21th, 1982 in Den Bosch. She studied Biotechnology at Wageningen University and in 2006 she received her Master’s degree with specialization cellular/molecular research. In 2006 she started working as a research technician at the Laboratory of Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI). In 2008 she started her PhD-project in the PNI-lab to study neurobiological mechanisms underlying the transition from acute to chronic inflammation-induced pain unter supervision of Professor Heijnen, Professor Kavelaars and Dr. Eijkelkamp. In 2013 this work resulted in her PhD thesis: “Chronic inflammatory pain: new molecules & mechanisms”. After completing her PhD she continued her research as a postdoc in the laboratory of neuroimmunology and Developmental Origins of Disease (DDOD) under supervision of Dr. Eijkelkamp. She investigated the genetic contribution to chronic pain and identified an unidentified protein which has a key role to promote the development of chronic pain. In search for the molecular function of this protein she recently worked in the lap of Professor Falnes, Oslo University (Norway) for 3 monthts. In 2018 she was rewarded with a VENI (NWO) to study whether targeting mitochondria is a novel way to treat chronic pain. Currently she is working on this project in the neuro-immunology group (Dr. Eijkelkamp) at Center for Translational Immunology.
Currently she is investigating how mitochondrial and metabolic alterations induce persistent pain symptoms in patients with post-acute infectious syndromes (PAIS), including post-COVID.
Publications
Website UMCU: dr. ir. H.L.D.M. Willemen – UMC Utrecht
Contact information
Laura Winkens
Assistant Professor Addaptive Lifestyle Interventions at Wageningen University & Research
Wageningen, The Netherlands.
About Laura
Lecturer and researcher
“Hearing the personal stories and experiences made the research topic more human and less abstract and has made me want to commit even more to better care for these patients.”
– Laura Winkens
Affiliations
Consumption and Healthy Lifestyles Chair group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
dr. LHH (Laura) Winkens – WUR
Profile
I am a behavioral scientist (Research Master Behavioural Science, Radboud University Nijmegen) with a PhD in Health Sciences (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam). Since 2019 I work as lecturer and researcher in the group Consumption and Healthy Lifestyles.
My research is mostly focused on behaviour change in relation to lifestyle. I am involved in the design and implementation of a number of lifestyle interventions in which we apply effective behavioral techniques tailored to the individual. I also work on the development of digital tools as a tool to achieve behavioral change. In my research I work in a multidisciplinary way and often use participative research designs and/or co-creation.
Recent publications
OrchID: Laura Winkens (0000-0002-9856-6509) – ORCID
Contact information
Via website WUR: dr. LHH (Laura) Winkens – WUR