RVB Translational Medicine Book

“We have one research line from the bed of the patient
to the molecules in the lab. It is not a one-way street:
it is dynamic and it goes back and forth.”
Jeroen Pasterkamp
Professor of Translational Neuroscience, Director of MIND Facility, and Chair of Strategic Research
Program Brain
The lab of Jeroen Pasterkamp is translational in several
different ways. He explains, “First of all, we try to
understand how the brain normally develops and
works, from a basic research perspective. We use the
normal situation as a standard, and then compare it to
the injured or diseased situation. Another strategy is to
use genetic information, brain resection material, or
cultured human neurons from patients as a starting
point. We can then use this to identify the cellular and
molecular mechanisms that are affected in different
diseases.”
“Translational Medicine in the field of neurosciences is
different from other fields, because the nervous system
is a complex organ and we do not know much about it.
We are trying to fix the patient’s problem, but at the
same time we are trying to understand how the brain
works,” Jeroen explains.
The enthusiastic professor is proud of having achieved
an efficient method to work with the clinic for studying
both motor neuron disease and epilepsy. “For example,
we have one research line in studying ALS, or
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, that extends from the bed
of the patient to the molecules we study in the lab. It is
not a one-way street: it is dynamic, it goes back and
forth. And, we collaborate with the entire world.”
UMC Utrecht 89