What is your current role on AMYPAD?

I originally joined the AMYPAD team at the Amsterdam University Medical Center in January 2020 as an intern for my master’s degree in Neurobiology. During this internship I was mainly involved in data collection, i.e. performing neuropsychological tests and assisting with amyloid Positron Emission Tomography scans. Recently, I re-joined the AMYPAD team in September 2021 as a PhD student at the Alzheimer Center and the Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the Amsterdam University Medical Center and at Lund University with the BioFINDER group. My research focus lies on heterogeneity in Alzheimer’s disease, addressing several research questions regarding resilience against Alzheimer’s disease related pathology, subtypes in amyloid accumulation, and more.

What is your overall vision?

I am looking forward to collaborate with talented researchers at different international institutions of the AMYPAD consortium. I believe that international collaborations are key in exchanging information, establishing large datasets, and answering important research questions. 

What do you find most challenging about the project?

While there are great advantages to having such a large-scale multi-center consortium as AMYPAD, it also poses challenges in terms of data transfer and harmonization. However, there already have been successful initiatives to harmonize the incoming data so I am confident that this will be resolved really well.