Louise van der Weerd, PhD

Dr. Louise van der Weerd holds an MSc and PhD in Biophysics from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and gained post-doctoral experience in neuroscience at University College London, United Kingdom. She joined the Leiden University Medical Center in The Netherlands 2005, Where she is now an associate professor and director of the pre-clinical imaging facility. The VanderWeerd lab is integrated within the departments of Radiology and Human Genetics, securing a smooth integration of the imaging work with pathophysiological validation on animal and cell models, as well as human tissue. Her research revolves around the use and development of novel MRI and other pre-clinical imaging techniques to characterize neurological and cardiovascular disease processes. Dr. Van der Weerd is a partner or work package leader in several national and European consortia focusing on imaging in Alzheimer’s Disease and CAA and neurovascular function in general, with a strong focus on post-mortem and in vivo brain imaging as evidenced from several grants awarded for post-mortem imaging in various neurodegenerative diseases. She also was awarded several prestigious personal awards (VENI and VIDI) on this topic. As such, she has ample experience with international consortia, and maintains fruitful collaborations globally, as evidenced by >100 peer-reviewed publications.