Assistant Professor - medical
Strategic program(s):
Biography
NIek van der Aa is a staff neonatologist at the Wilhelmina Children's Hospital. He obtained a PhD in the field of Perinatal Arterial Ischemic Stoke (supervisors prof Linda de Vries, prof Nick Ramsey, prof Onno van Nieuwenhuizen) and has continued working in this field since. He was a visiting scientist at the Department of Neonatology at John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, USA and at The Centre for the Developing Brain, UCL, London, UK. After finishing his Neonatology fellowship in 2023, he continued his training as a Neonatal Neurology fellow at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada (dr Vann Chau, dr Emily Tam). In 2024 he started working as a neonatologist at the Wilhelmina Children's Hospital. His research focuses on brain injury and development of the neonatal brain.
Research aim
We use longitudinal fetal and neonatal neuroimaging and neuromonitoring to study brain development and function, model brain diseases, and improve long term outcome in high-risk infants.Research aim
Our mission is to unravel the impact of early life adversity, such as perinatal asphyxia and stroke, preterm birth and early life stress on brain development and to design strategies to improve outcome of affected infants, shaping a better future.Research aim
Our aim is to explore how neonatal neurobehavior and environmental factors impact brain development, especially focusing on NICU infants both with and without brain injuries, in order to improve long term outcome.