Brain, Bacteria and Behaviour: understanding the gut-brain axis (RSS4.06) - Confirmed

dr. Alejandro Arias Vasquez

Alejandro Arias Vásquez was born in Colombia, obtained his PhD in Genetic Epidemiology in 2006, and is a Principal Investigator (since 2015) and Associate Professor in Biological Neuropsychiatry in Radboudumc since 2019. His research activities are imbedded within three domains: genetic epidemiology, effects of the gut microbiota in neurodevelopment, and high order analysis methods of complex traits. 

For over 15 years, his drive towards the discovery of genetic determinants of psychiatric disease has led him through a road full with exciting breakthroughs. His work on neuropsychological traits and neurodevelopmental disorders (mainly ADHD and ASD) allowed him to establish the biological and statistical relevance of quantitative behavioral traits in the search for disease genes. The main contribution of this work has been to set-in a new research approach for brain imaging genetics (via his work in the ENIGMA consortium) that is currently considered one of the “standard” ways to analyse brain imaging genetics data. 

Since 2013, he set-up a one-of-a-kind collaboration (at the Radboud UMC) between psychiatry, brain imaging, behaviour, genetics and microbiology in order to investigate, for the first time, the relationship between gut bacteria (the microbiota) and neurodevelopmental disorders (ADHD, ASD and ID) and related behaviour in humans. This pioneering work has received support from the NWO through a Food & Cognition personal grant and the EU-H2020 program through an European Training Network and a Research & Innovation Action call. The latter is the Eat2beNICE project (http://newbrainnutrition.com/). 

Currently, his group applies complex statistical analytical methods with a focus on maximizing the prediction and classification power of multiple biological markers (i.e. genes, microbiota) and integrating them with environmental, clinical, cognitive, and neuroimaging (brain structure and function) information in order to better characterize NDDs. 

Dr. Mirjam Bloemendaal

Mirjam Bloemendaal is interdisciplinary researcher, originally trained as a neuropsychologist. She obtained a PhD in cognitive neuroscience at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour in 2017. In this period she got intrigued by the influence of nutrition and gut microbiota on cognitive performance and mental health. She has a drive for mechanistic research in a clinical setting. She has experience both in academia and industry, setting up and managing public-private consortia. In this context she performs bioinformatic analyses studying the role of the gut microbiota (e.g. using 16S rRNA sequencing data) in the gut-brain-axis, looking into the potential of non-pharmacological interventions in mental health treatment. At the Radboudumc and Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany she is involved in various (intervention) studies tapping into the gut-immune-brain axis. This allows her to study the role of lifestyle factors (diet, probiotics, physical activity) and the gut microbiota in cognitive functioning and mental health across the lifespan. 

Danique Mulder

Danique Mulder is a cognitive neuroscientist, completed her master's program in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, where she gained expertise in electrophysiological methods such as EEG and MEG. Currently, she works as a research assistant at the Radboud University Medical Center. Her research focuses on exploring the microbiota-gut-brain axis in the context of psychiatric disorders and psychiatric comorbidity. Danique has a keen interest in the lifestyle and nutritional psychiatry, and firmly believes in the importance of considering lifestyle factors in the context of mental health. Through her research she hopes to gain mechanistic insight on how lifestyle factors could shape mental well-being

Dr. Jeanette Mostert

Dr. Jeanette Mostert is a neurobiologist, science communicator and associate principal lecturer. She obtained her PhD at the Radboudumc Nijmegen and Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour in 2016, where she investigated heterogeneity in functional brain connectivity and behaviour of adults with ADHD. She subsequently focused on teaching at the Bachelor program Psychobiology of the University of Amsterdam, where she also obtained her teaching qualification (BKO). Currently she works at the department of genetics as embedded science communication advisor where she helps researchers to translate their work to the general public. Her focus is on adult ADHD and the role of the gut-brain axis in psychiatric behaviour. As lecturer she teaches several courses at medical and biomedical sciences and is currently in the process of obtaining her extended teaching qualification.