Wierenga’s research focuses on inhibitory synapses. These are brain connections that provide the inhibitory signals that guide information processing in the brain. Wierenga aims to understand the molecular processes that take place when inhibitory synapses are formed or removed. This knowledge can be used to better understand the origin and course of brain disorders, such as autism and Alzheimer’s disease.
About Corette Wierenga
Corette Wierenga (Nijmegen, 1972) studied Theoretical Physics at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. She obtained her PhD in 2002 with the dissertation “Functional interactions between interneurons and the pyramidal cell population in the hippocampal CA1 area”, which focused on frequency-dependent coupling between inhibitory and excitory neurons in the hippocampi of mice. Afterwards, from 2002 to 2005, she conducted research at Brandeis University in Waltham in America and at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried in Germany between 2005 and 2011.
Returning to the Netherlands, Wierenga started working as a lecturer at Utrecht University. After being promoted to associate professor in 2015, she moved back to her hometown on 1 September to be appointed as Full Professor of Neurophysiology at Radboud University.
Throughout her career, Wierenga has been able to fund her research by winning various grants and awards. In 2008, for instance, she was awarded the Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and ľOréal Germany awards and, in 2012, she started an independent research group in Utrecht based on the prestigious NWO VIDI and Aspasia grants.