MDS Europe - University Medical Center Groningen

University Medical Center Groningen

The University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) is one of the largest hospitals in the Netherlands. Cutting-edge scientific research is performed, with a specific focus on ‘healthy and active ageing’. The UMCG has a longstanding tradition of cohort studies, including both population-based participants and clinical patients in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. The UMCG focuses on healthy ageing in all priority areas: research, clinical care and education. The healthy ageing-related research is bundled in the Institute of Healthy Ageing. This institute provides the framework in which the healthy ageing activities are embedded, such as the cohort study Lifelines, the UMCG Center for Geriatric Medicine (UCO) and the European Research Institute on the Biology of Ageing (ERIBA). Healthy ageing may be achieved not only by acquiring a better understanding of the physical ageing process, by improving the prevention and treatment of chronic and often age-related illnesses, but also by optimizing the healthcare and the development of technologies for the ageing individual.

The field of Internal Medicine and Endocrinology is very important in these Healthy Ageing activities. Several internal medicine disorders are exemplary for how doctors treat and guide patients in attaining and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, in order to prevent the development of diseases and their complications. The Department of Endocrinology has played a pivotal role in the development of Lifelines.

Our team

Professor Gerwin Huls, MD, PhD

Gerwin has been a professor in haematology since 2015. He is active on several national and international scientific boards and is secretary of the board of the Leukaemia group of the Dutch HOVON group. He is PI of several clinical studies within HOVON and EORTC. His research group studies the role of ageing/senescence and Wnt signalling on normal and malignant haematopoiesis. He is a member of the American Society of Hematology and the European Society of Haematology.

Within MDS-RIGHT he focuses on the impact of anaemia in the Lifelines cohort and the possible diagnosis of MDS by identification of molecular defects. He also explores the consequences of underdiagnosis of MDS in the Lifelines cohort.

Melanie van der Klauw, MD, PhD

Melanie has been an epidemiologist since 1998, and an endocrinologist since 2001. She wrote her thesis on pharmacoepidemiology and adverse effects of medication. She has been involved in the Lifelines cohort study from the start in 2006 until 2012, leading the medical section, and has been doing research with the Lifelines data since then.

Her research focuses on quality of life in patients with a variety of disorders, genetic epidemiology, the healthy obese, and cognition. She is a member of the European Society of Endocrinology, the Endocrine Society, the European Society for the study of Diabetes, and the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Epidemiologie.

Within MDS-RIGHT she focuses on the prevalence, characterisation, and impact of anaemia, and the consequences of underdiagnosis of MDS in the Lifelines cohort on quality of life, cognitive and physical functioning. Furthermore, she evaluates environmental risk factors for anaemia, and revise the definition of anaemia in older individuals.

Prof. Bruce Wolffenbuttel, MD, PhD

Bruce has been professor of endocrinology since 2001. His core research is devoted to healthy ageing, with a main focus on the genetic and biochemical factors and gene-environment interactions responsible for the development of endocrine disorders like obesity and diabetes, and the pathophysiology of long-term structural and functional micro- and macrovascular complications in both human and experimental diabetes. Other interests include the pathology, imaging and treatment, especially of adrenal, thyroid and pituitary tumours, and their effects on quality of life of patients. He has participated in many large-scale genetic consortia, including the group that described genetic loci influencing the human red blood cell. He is a member of the European Society of Endocrinology, the Endocrine Society and the European Society for the study of Diabetes.

Within MDS-RIGHT he focuses on the prevalence, characterisation, and impact of anaemia, and the consequences of underdiagnosis of MDS in the Lifelines cohort on quality of life, cognitive and physical functioning. Furthermore, he evaluates environmental risk factors for anaemia, and revises the definition of anaemia in older individuals.

Hanneke Wouters

Hanneke is a PhD student, who during her study has done research on quality of life in the Lifelines population in the group of participants with hypothyroidism. During her PhD she focuses on quality of life.