Since 2002, I have been working as a rheumatologist in the Department of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at Amsterdam UMC (AMC). Since 2011, I have also served as the program director for the rheumatology training program at AMC, working with the training team to oversee and shape the education of future rheumatologists.

As an AMC principal investigator, I lead a research team focused on developing innovative techniques to map adaptive immune responses. These responses play a central role in many autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, myositis, and vasculitis, and are also critical in drug reactions, vaccinations, and more.

Our team has developed a new diagnostic test for IgG4-related disease and a predictive test to identify individuals at risk of developing chronic rheumatoid arthritis in the near future. These advancements have provided valuable insights into the pathogenesis of these diseases.

Currently, we are building on these successes to make further progress in diseases such as myositis, vasculitis, and CIDP. This work is supported by grants from the Dutch Arthritis Foundation, the Dutch government’s LSH initiative (MODIRA), the European Union in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry (IMI: ABIRISK), and the Horizon program (COSMIC).