Biographies

Berent Prakken (MD, PhD) is vice-dean and director of the biomedical education centre at the Utrecht Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU), the Netherlands. He is also professor of pediatric immunology at the UMCU and honorary professor at the University of Ghent, Belgium. Prakken has built a translational research lab that focuses on regulation of inflammation and biomarker development in human in inflammatory diseases. He received numerous national and international awards and grants for his work. The work of his group is published in major international journals, including Nature Medicine, PNAS, Immunity, the Lancet, JCI and in various Nature journals. Over the years he has successfully mentored more than 40 PhD students. Prakken serves in various national and international research advisory boards and was member of the Dutch National Health Council (‘Gezondheidsraad’). He was vice-chair of Medical Ethical Review Board (IRB) of the UMCU. Prakken is president of the Pediatric Rheumatology European Society (PRES) and member of the EULAR executive committee. He is member of the steering committee of UCAN (international federation facilitating biological research in arthritis) and has set up the first international platform for biological studies in arthritis (UCAN-U, www.ucan-u.org). Prakken’s personal commitment is to training & education and to improve the impact of science. Unconventional thinking, collaboration and crossing boundaries inspire him, just as his close friendship with Salvo Albani, Norm Rosenblum and the other board members of Eureka. As co-founder and board member, Prakken enjoys the journey on which Eureka is taking them.

Nadine Nonnekes (MSc) coordinates the International Office of UMC Utrecht and works as a policy officer on internationalization. Nadine is involved in the Pathway project as a project manager.

Farah Kools (MSc) is a PhD candidate at UMC Utrecht. She is passionate about the Life Science sector and focusses on ways to bridge the gap between bench and bedside and raises awareness about reducing research waste. Farah has a background in Biomedical Sciences at Utrecht University where she did research in the fields of Metabolic Diseases, Regenerative Medicine, and Oncology, completing her Master internship at Massachusetts General Hospital, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Colby Benari (MSc) has over a decade of experience supporting biomedical researchers to find mentors, win funding and develop their careers. As Head of the Academic Careers Office, University College London, Colby is responsible for developing the careers of over 5.000 graduate students and many more postdoctoral biomedical researchers through innovative and impactful programmes. Colby has previously managed research funding schemes and mentoring schemes for Cancer Research UK and the UK Academy of Medical Sciences.

Liselotte Deroo (MD) is a clinical PhD student at the Rheumatology Department of the Ghent University Hospital, Belgium. During her medical studies, she was active in the students association and  she was an intern at the Shiraz University Hospital, Iran. After her graduation in June 2018, she was admitted to the training programme for Internal Medicine, but she decided to precede her clinical training by a 4-year research project in the field of spondyloarthritis (SpA). She participates in the follow-up of a large SpA patient cohort and is planning to do more research on the evolution of SpA and possible new (genetic) markers.

Nienke ter Haar (MD, PhD) performed her PhD in the Laboratory of Translational Immunology of the University Medical Center Utrecht, focusing on disease mechanisms, therapy and prognosis of systemic autoinflammatory diseases such as systemic onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis, a rare pediatric rheumatic disease. After finishing her PhD, Nienke has worked as a physician in the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital. Being a clinician-scientist – and mother – she experienced the opportunities and difficulties in combining a career in science and clinics while maintaining a good work-life balance. She is therefore happy to be part of the Pathway project since April 2019.

Ann-Sophie De Craemer (MD) is a clinical PhD student at the Rheumatology department of Ghent University Hospital, Belgium. During her training as a medical doctor, she participated in the ESEM Summer School on Biomedical Engineering in Dublin, Ireland. She received her medical degree in June 2015, followed by a 2-year clinical training in Internal Medicine. From October 2017, she started a PhD project in the field of spondyloarthritis (SpA). She participates in the follow-up of a large SpA patient cohort and in an investigator-initiated interventional trial about a treat-to-target approach in early axial SpA. Furthermore, she jointly conducts several MRI studies in order to refine imaging modalities in SpA. Apart from clinical studies, she also investigates the role of gut mucosal barrier integrity in the pathogenesis of SpA. This research has a more fundamental focus and should result in a more comprehensive insight into the initiation and progression of disease, which ultimately offers opportunities for new treatment strategies.

Olle ten Cate (Professor) attended medical school at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the Netherlands, and subsequently spent his professional life serving medical education. In 1986 he completed a PhD dissertation in medical education. Until 1999, he was closely involved with all of the UvA’s major preclinical and clinical curriculum reforms, education research, program evaluation and educational development. In 1999, he was appointed professor of Medical Education at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. From 2005 to 2017, he was the director of the Center for Research and Development of Education at UMC Utrecht. His research interests include curriculum development, peer teaching, competency-based medical education, and many other topics in health professions education. From 2006 until 2012, he served as president of the Netherlands Association for Medical Education (NVMO). In 2012, he was appointed adjunct professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, next to his work in Utrecht, to co-lead a collaborative doctoral program in health professions education. He published extensively in the medical education, supervises many doctoral students and receives many international invitations to speak. He received the NBME’s John P. Hubbard Award in the USA for his work related to assessment, the NVMO Han Moll Penning and the first biennial international Ian R. Hart Award for innovation in medical education.

Geraint Rees (Professor) is Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences at University College London (UCL), responsible for a large and complex world-leading academic faculty with over 850 staff, several thousand students and an income of almost £120M per annum. He founded and directs the Academic Careers Office (ACO) at UCL and the Experimental Medicine Academy at the UCLH NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. The ACO delivers highly creative nationally recognised training to some of the UK’s largest academic and clinical academic training programmes. He is a non-executive Director of UCL Business, one of the UK’s most successful technology transfer companies, and a Senior Scientific Advisor at DeepMind. As a neurologist and neuroscientist, his research seeks to understand the neural basis of human cognition. He has published over 280 research papers that have been cited over 28.000 times, and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2010. His current projects at UCL include transforming the digital and data ecosystem and helping deliver AI-enabled healthcare systems.

Annet van Royen-Kerkhof (MD, PhD) is pediatrician-immunologist/rheumatologist, and Head of the Department of Pediatric Immunology, Rheumatology, Infectiology, Hematology and StemCell Transplantation of the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, University Medical Centre Utrecht (UMC Utrecht). Her clinical work, focussing on pediatric systemic autoimmune diseases, mainly juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM), is closely interrelated with fundamental research from the Laboratory of Translational Immunology of the UMC Utrecht, and the Child Development & Exercise Center of the UMC Utrecht. Her fields of interest are development of biomarkers (e.g. galactine-9) to assess disease activity in JDM, and development of training programs to increase physical activity in children with musculoskeletal inflammation. Dr van Royen-Kerkhof and co-workers actively contribute to research projects of centers for JDM worldwide. In addition, Dr van Royen-Kerkhof is Program Director of the Medical Research Master SUMMA, a program to train clinician-scientists.

Belinda van’t Land (PhD) is a Sr. Scientist within Nutricia Research and affiliated to the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, UMC Utrecht. She currently leads a cross-functional research team (consisting of a Post-doc, 3 PhD students and a Sr. Assistant Scientist) studying the complex interplay between nutrition and immunological development in early life. She obtained her PhD at the Radboud University of Nijmegen, which focused on the immunopathology involved in mucosal barrier injury with the impact of nutrition as key study aspect. With increasing interest in immunological challenges and the passion for translational research she took the role as scientist within Nutricia Research and performed clinical as well as preclinical research leading to a fast amount of publications, patents as well as granted research collaborations. With her passion for early life immune development and believe that nutrition can make the difference, she is dedicated to increase the translational capacity of current research collaboration.

Jose M. Peinado (MD, PhD) is professor of Medical Biochemistry at the University of Granada, Spain. He is former Dean of the Granada Medical School (2000-2008), and former president of the Spanish Deans Association. He was coordinator of the Bologna process in Spain and editor of the “Spanish white book” on graduate medical education. Prof. Peinado has also devoted an important part of his academic career to the improvement and modernization of medical education and research methodology, participating in numerous national and international projects. Prof. Peinado’s research has been centered in neurochemistry and stress physiology. Currently he is working on volatile organic compound as biomarkers of prostate cancer. He has been director of 19 PhD theses.

Thomas Renson (MD) graduated in 2013 from the University of Ghent with a master’s degree in medicine. Subsequently, he started his pediatric traineeship in the Sint-Jan Hospital in Bruges, Belgium, where he took his first steps into the field of general pediatrics and neonatology. Thereafter, Thomas worked one year in the Ghent University Hospital and one year in Brussels (Edith Cavell Hospital and Jette University Hospital) as a pediatric resident. Considering his ambition of becoming a pediatric rheumatologist, Thomas started a PhD program in 2016, under the supervision of Dirk Elewaut (MD, PhD), head of the department of rheumatology in the Ghent University Hospital. The research project focuses on diagnosis of spondyloarthropathy and juvenile spondyloarthritis, more specifically on magnetic resonance imaging.

Juan I. Arcelus (MD, PhD) graduated in medicine from the University of Granada Medical School, Granada, Spain, in 1982, and obtained a PhD, specializing in thrombosis, from the same university in 1998. After completing his residency in general and gastrointestinal surgery at the University Hospital of Granada, Dr Arcelus served a research fellowship in the Department of Surgery at Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA, from 1989 to 1992. He was associate director of the Thrombosis and Hemostasis Group at Evanston Hospital, Evanston, Illinois, from 1990 to 1992.

Dr. Arcelus became professor of surgery at the University of Granada Medical School in 2003 and practices as an attending staff member in the Department of Surgery of the Hospital Universitario Virgen de las Nieves, also in Granada, and is Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Granada Medical School since June 2016. His main research interests include the risk assessment, epidemiology, diagnosis, prevention, and follow-up of venous thromboembolism (VTE), particularly in surgical patients. He is also involved in research on the management of patients undergoing endocrine surgery.

Dirk Elewaut (MD, PhD) is a full professor of rheumatology and immunology and Chair of the Department of Rheumatology at Ghent University Hospital, a EULAR and FOCIS center of excellence. He obtained his MD at Ghent University in 1991 and his PhD at the same institution in 1997. Following postdoctoral research at the University of California San Diego and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, he joined the faculty of the Department of Rheumatology at Ghent University Hospital in 2001. He has published more than 250 scientific publications, and is heading a team of 20 researchers of the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Inflammation at the same department. The team has recently joined the Inflammation Research Center (IRC) of the Flanders Research Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), where Dirk Elewaut has been appointed as principal investigator. His research interests are centered around translational aspects of immune regulation to combat inflammatory arthritis and associated joint damage, with special focus on spondyloarthritis

Carlijn Vermeer (BSc) is a final-year Selective Utrecht Medical Master (SUMMA) student at Utrecht University. She is temporarily involved in the Pathway project as a student assistant.

María Concepción Iribar (MD, PhD) is currently professor of Biochemistry and Research Methodology, at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Granada, Spain. She is specialist in nuclear medicine (University Hospital Zaragoza, Spain and University Hospital HUVN, Granada, Spain). Director of the “Research Office” (Granada University, 2000-2008). Director of the master in Neuroscience (1994-2000 and 2012-2020). Responsible of the courses on scientific methodology (online master Nutrenvigen G+D factors). Knowledge´s and skills on web design and Content Management System WordPress. Her research has been centered in neuroimaging and neurochemistry.