After completing my medical studies at the University of Amsterdam, I worked as a junior doctor in Internal Medicine at the Academic Medical Center (AMC) in Amsterdam. I subsequently specialized in Neurology and obtained my PhD focusing on hereditary polyneuropathies.

I have since worked in the Neuromuscular Diseases care unit at the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU), with a particular focus on various forms of myositis: polymyositis, dermatomyositis, immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy, and inclusion body myositis. In collaboration with researchers from the AMC, LUMC, and other institutions across the country, I have supervised PhD research into the pathogenesis, diagnostics, treatment, and prognosis of these diseases.

Notably, I co-initiated a nationwide randomized controlled trial investigating a new corticosteroid treatment for myositis. Our findings demonstrated that this new approach is as effective as the conventional daily high-dose prednisolone regimen but with fewer side effects.

At UMCU’s neuromuscular diseases outpatient clinic, I also diagnose and treat patients with other muscle diseases, such as limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, distal myopathy, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, and myotonic dystrophy. Additionally, I care for patients with myasthenia gravis.