Full Professor
Strategic program(s):
Biography
My area of expertise is vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and small vessel disease (SVD), with a particular focus on MRI markers to improve diagnosis and prognostication and support personalized treatment.
Using the unique properties of high field 7T-MRI we have been able – for the first time -to detect cerebral microinfarcts in vivo. We have translated the technique to more widely available 3T-MRI, and published standards on microinfarct detection in the Lancet Neurology. Currently we explore small vessel disease at the level of the small vessels themselves using novel measures of small vessel structure and function at 7T MRI and study the cognitive impact of vascular lesions through multicenter lesion symptom mapping studies (META VCI MAP consortium; https://metavcimap.org/ ) and through white matter network studies with diffusion MRI.
I am actively involved in several national and international VCI and SVD research networks, including STRIVE and HARNESS. I lead the Dutch Heart Brain Connection consortium (https://www.hart-brein.nl/ ). I was PI in two large RCTs in diabetes with cognitive outcomes.
I have mentored over 40 PhD students and have over 450 peer-reviewed publications. I am a Dutch National Research Council Vidi and Vici laureate and was appointed Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh in 2016 and received the Senior Investigator Award of the European Stroke Organisation in 2015 in recognition of my work.
Research line
Vascular Cognitive Impairment, cerebral small vessel disease
Recent key publications
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Biessels+G
Research aim
Our research focuses on developing and validating novel MRI markers for vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and cerebral small vessel diseases (SVD) that can help to improve diagnosis and prognostication and support personalized treatmentResearch aim
Our research focusses on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of stroke and intracranial vasculopathies, including cerebral small vessel disease and intracranial aneurysms, with the ultimate goal to improve treatment strategies and prognosis.2015: Senior Investigator Award European Stroke Organisation (ESO)
2011: Discovering declarative memory: A multimodal imaging approach in patients with ischemic stroke”,
Consultant, Chair of Steering Committe COGNIKET trial - Advies over opzet en uitvoer RCT ketogeen voedingssupplement bij MCI; vergoeding gaat naar UMCU - Nestlé Health Science