Willemijn Jansen wins Young Outstanding Researcher Award
Willemijn Jansen, associate professor of neuropsychology and since 2012 researcher at the Alzheimer Centre Limburg, has won the Young Outstanding Researcher Award. The neuropsychologist who has been working at the Alzheimer Centre Limburg since 2012 wins €100,000 for dementia research with this talent prize.
Willemijn's research focuses on people who have Alzheimer's disease, but do not suffer from it and therefore do not develop dementia. These people appear to have a kind of resistance.
Based on this observation Willemijn examines the proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid and whether these proteins can also be found in the brain tissue. Her research could be the first big step in developing a treatment for Alzheimer's dementia.
Watch her nomination video and learn more about her research and ambitions.
About the Young Outstanding Researcher Award
This year Alzheimer Nederland presents the Young Outstanding Researcher Award for the fourth time. The YOR-award is an award for talented researchers (two to six years after their promotion). With the award Alzheimer Nederland wants to retain more young and talented researchers for dementia research and thus accelerate the research into solutions for current and future generations of patients and careers.
Dr. Jansen was nominated, among others, by Prof. Dr. Frans Verhey, founder of the Alzheimer Centre Limburg. He wrote the following:
"Willemijn managed to collect data from more than 90 cohorts worldwide by personally contacting study PIs and persuading them to collaborate by sharing their data, which is an unprecedented achievement in the Alzheimer research field. She established the unique ‘Amyloid Biomarker Study’ consortium with internationally renowned researchers from all over the world. Furthermore, she managed to obtain funding from multiple sources among which a pharmaceutical company for conducting research within this consortium for herself as well as two PhD students who are supervised by her.
With her Veni research, Willemijn is determined to advance the identification of new preventative treatment as well as to further elucidate the heterogeneity of Alzheimer’s disease by investigating the molecular mechanisms behind resilience to Alzheimer’s disease pathology. This research will be of great importance for the scientific community and tomorrow’s patients. Also, within our Alzheimer Center as well as the Alzheimer Nederland research agenda, this research forms an essential connecting factor between our diagnostics and prevention pillars."