Throughout my scientific career I have been interested in understanding the pathogenetic basis of neurodegenerative disorders. I received my Ph.D. in 2005 from the Radboud University Nijmegen, where he was involved in Alzheimer’s disease research at the department of Pathology. Currently, I am appointed as an associate professor at the Department of Molecular Cell Biology and Immunology of the VU University Medical Center Amsterdam, the Netherlands and a visiting Professor at the Biomedical Research Institute of the Hasselt University, Belgium. My research line used to focus on the identification of pathogenic processes and molecular pathways underlying multiple sclerosis (MS) disease progression. In the last five years my focus shifted towards education. In order to improve my educational skills and knowledge I completed my senior and educational leadership qualification. To date, I am the program director of the Bachelor of Medicine VU Amsterdam and I coordinate an educational track in histology and cell biology for the Faculty of Medicine.

The workshop that I will supervise starts with a short interactive lecture on the cellular composition of various parts of the central and peripheral nervous system and will be followed by a practical microscopy session in which you will investigate tissue sections yourself. Knowledge on the basic histology of the CNS and PNS is needed for the last part of the workshop in which we will focus on various pathologies such as stroke, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. At the end of this workshop you have increased your knowledge on CNS and PNS histology and you can identify the key pathological hallmarks of common CNS disorders.