Mental Health, Biological Psychiatry, Metabolic Psychiatry, Psychonomics, Mood disorders. Youth and neuromodulation, Gut-brain-axis.

#Art: Improvisation art. Immersive experience. Biobased art. Art based learning. Neuroaesthetics.

Psychiatrist and psychologist with an interdisciplinary expertise in the fields of mental health, biological (metabolic) psychiatry, and psychonomics. I am fascinated by changes in mental health over time, especially the course of mood. With a focus on adolescence, as it is arguabely one of the most challenging and dynamic periods of development. The malleablity of the (nervous) system at adolescence can be harnessed and may provide a critical window of opportunity to safely mitigate f.e. depression. This goal ask for a complexity approach, in which multiple factors at distinct levels interact and psychobiological systems are a potential end-point to target. My dual training and expertise in psychiatry and psychonomics allows me to approach this topic in a genuinely interdisciplinairy manner, whereby methods and concepts of both fields are integrated.  

My research spans from hormones to metabolomics  to exploring the microbiome as a novel approach to the analysis and modification of mental health. The microbiome is operating at the nexus of the exposome and psychobiological functioning. The latter program of research involves discovery, mechanistic and intervention studies of microbiology in mental health in collaboration with the faculty of Science, Swammerdam Institute of Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam. Strives to translate this knowledge to the public by diverse media content and participates in a museum exhibition (Rijksmuseum Boerhaave Leiden).

Clinically, my work focusses on affective disorders in youth, which was recognized with an innovation grant by the board of the Amsterdam University Medical Center to set up a Transition center for Affective Disorders (www.tas.nl). Adolescence is a critical time for mental well-being, as alsmost 75% of adult mental disorders have origins during youth. This center attempt to serve as a springboard for accelerated action on adolescent health and to intervene on time. My research centers on 1. improving diagnostics and therapeutic accuracy and effectivity and 2. exploring neuro(modulation)-techniques in youth with mood disorders. Currently we study interventions for anhedonia f.e. based on Art Based Learning techniques and interoceptive awareness.

Since 2016 I am appointed as executive board member and theme leader Mental Health of the HEalthy Life In an Urban Setting (HELIUS)-study (www.helius.nl) for which we collaborate with different (inter)national research groups of diverse disciplines in translational psychiatry. The HELIUS Study is designed as a prospective cohort study, including six ethnic groups living in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The general objective is to study the causes of the unequal burden of diseases across these ethnic groups. Together with a team, we work f.e. on machine learning models to predict who develop stress-related disorders over time and who are not in this multi-ethnic population in an urban context.

Parallel and complementary to my mentioned work, I am fascinated by Art and Creative processes that occur in real-time where idea generation and evaluation may occur in rapid succesion or simultaneously. One model behavior that is topic of interest and using neuroscience methods is musical improvisation within the style of jazz. Offering a complexity model to study spontaneous creativity under considerable temporal constraints. Currently I collaborate with an interdisciplinary experience-design collective-Polymorf- to create and stimulate Embodiment Intellegence. One of our granted projects is The Microbiome Restaurant, a multisensory XR dining, where users can explore their body as an intertwined ecology of lifeforms influencing the body's agency and autonomy and questioning the ownership and control of the human over its body.