The Radboudumc Executive Board recently announced nine appointments and career advancements within the Radboudumc Scientific Career Path. Seven researchers were appointed to new roles across the Talent Track and AP-RGL levels, while two others progressed to the next phase of their scientific career path.
We are proud to introduce these talented researchers you and would like to acknowledge the Talent Track Committee for their thorough assessment in the selection process.
Researcher in Talent Track phase 1
Marieke Klein (Medical Neuroscience)
Marieke Klein conducts research on the biological mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders and resilience to mental health problems. Using advanced statistical genomics, she integrates genetic, epigenetic, neuroimaging, and behavioral data to better understand why some individuals are more vulnerable to mental illness while others remain resilient. Her research aims to identify molecular pathways that contribute to risk and resilience across the lifespan, ultimately supporting the development of more personalized prevention and mental healthcare. Through her interdisciplinary approach and international collaborations, she bridges large-scale human data with experimental neuroscience to translate biological insights into clinical impact.
Main research program: The brain across Development in Health and Disease
Vincent Aengevaeren (Cardiology)
Vincent Aengevaeren’s research is in the field of sports cardiology and focuses on the effects of exercise on the heart, acknowledging both its substantial benefits and potential detrimental effects. He has a particular focus on the relationship between exercise and coronary atherosclerosis. His goal is to better understand the effects of exercise on the heart, in order to optimize exercise recommendations, prevention strategies, screening and medical management. Ultimately, he aims to prevent cardiovascular events in active individuals.
Main research program: Atherosclerosis & Thrombosis
Assistant professor in Talent Track phase 2
Esmée Bakker (primary and community care)
Esmée Bakker was promoted from Researcher in Talent Track phase 1 to Assistant professor in TT2. Her research aims to develop personalized physical activity prescriptions to improve cardiovascular health and quality of life. She focuses on 24-hour movement behaviors, such as physical activity at different intensities, sitting and sleep, using novel metrics. She combines physical activity epidemiology with data science and integrates socio-medical data sources.
Main research program: Health-care related prevention
Alessa Hering (Medical Imaging)
Alessa Hering’s research focuses on artificial intelligence for longitudinal and multimodal imaging of metastatic cancer. She aims to use the rich information contained in serial imaging and clinical data to better understand how metastatic disease evolves and responds to treatment. Her work aims to translate these insights into clinically useful tools that support radiologists and oncologists, improve the efficiency and consistency of cancer assessment, and ultimately enable more personalized patient care.
Main research program: Prostate, Bladder and Kidney Cancer
Amir Sadeghi (Cardiothoracic Surgery)
Amir Sadeghi is a cardiothoracic surgeon who recently started at Radboudumc. His research focuses on advanced preoperative planning and intraoperative navigation in both thoracic oncological- and cardiovascular surgery. By combining imaging modalities (CT, angio-, echocardiography) with computational approaches (artificial intelligence, extended reality, and physics-based modeling) my group aims to enhance procedural planning and guidance, reduce surgical decision-making errors, and enable first-time-right surgery with better patient outcomes.
Although focused on thoracic and aortic surgery, pulmonary oncology is the central theme in my research. My group has developed and valorized an AI-based method for planning and guiding lung-sparing resections, now in use across many centers in the Netherlands and Europe, and we are currently extending this work toward computer-assisted intraoperative navigation in the operating room. In parallel, my group leverages deep learning to enhance imaging-guided planning of cardiovascular procedures, building pipelines for high-throughput analysis of imaging parameters to support personalized surgery and population-based outcome modeling.
Research program: Thoracic Oncology
Anil Man Tuladhar’s research focuses on small vessel disease, young stroke and atrial fibrillation-related stroke. His research aims to improve the understanding of the nature and sources of clinical variability in these patients and to gain deeper insight into the pathological processes underlying the development of these diseases using state-of-the-art neuroimaging methods and novel technologies.
Main research program: Cerebrovascular Diseases
Donnie Cameron (Medical Imaging)
Donnie Cameron's research focuses on development of novel imaging biomarkers for use in clinical trials in neuromuscular disorders and sarcopenia. With MRI measures of skeletal muscle function and microstructure, he hopes to capture early muscle changes, prior to replacement of muscle tissue with fat, in order to identify optimal windows for treatment.
Main research program: Neuromuscular disorders
Associate Professor – Research group leader
Felix Hol (Medical Microbiology)
Felix Hol is a Hypatia fellow and was promoted from Assistant professor in TT2 to Associate professor-RGL. He studies how mosquitoes transmit the pathogens that cause malaria and dengue. Bringing methods from physics, bioengineering, and machine learning to vector biology, his group builds experimental platforms that make mosquito behavior measurable at unprecedented resolution — revealing how mosquitoes bite, how they seek out favorable microclimates, and how many parasites they actually deliver in a single bite. These open-source tools are now used by laboratories across the world. Working with partners in endemic regions including Uganda and Kenya, Felix Hol connects laboratory insight to real-world settings. His recent works seeks to understand how malaria mosquitoes adapt and spread in a changing climate, and how that knowledge can improve vector control.
AP-RGL title: Vector biology
Main research program: Vector-borne Diseases and Zoonoses
Marleen Ansems’ research group studies how the tumor microenvironment drives radiotherapy response and how this can be exploited to improve cancer treatment. Her work combines mechanistic studies on cancer-associated fibroblasts with the development of patient-derived predictive platforms and their translation towards clinical decision making. By linking tumor biology, model systems and radiotherapy, her group aims to identify and target biological drivers of treatment response and move towards biologically-informed treatment strategies that improve outcomes for individual patients.
AP-RGL title: Tumor microenvironment and preclinical model development
Main research programs: Sanity: synergistic combinations of ablation and immunotherapy in cancer & 3D Biology and Disease Mechanisms
About the Scientific Career Path
The Scientific Career Path is one of three Academic Career Paths established at Radboudumc. The career path is created to provide stability and a transparent career prospectives for talented researchers aspiring a scientific career at the Radboudumc. The assessment criteria are aligned with the national Recognition and Rewards Initiative. Other career paths within the Radboudumc with focus on Education & Training and Academic Healthcare.
This path includes a Talent Track for researchers moving from postdoc to Associate Professor and Research Group Leader (RGL), and a Career Track for progression from Associate Professor-RGL to full Professor-RGL.
The Research Talent Track is divided into two phases:
Phase 1, targets postdocs with several years of experience. Researchers within the track benefit from a training program and peer-to-peer support. After up to five years, candidates are reassessed for promotion to phase 2: Assistant Professor with a research profile.
Phase 2, targets postdocs with more than 5 years of relevant experience who have started building their own research group. In up to five years, these candidates work on their professional and personal development, while expanding their team to become an independent research group, ultimately preparing for their appointment as Associate Professor-RGL. The Hypatia scheme is also integrated into this phase for external candidates.
The Talent Track Committee evaluates all research-profile candidates and advises the Radboudumc Executive Board on appointments within Talent Track phases 1, 2, and the promotion to Associate Professor-RGL.
Read more about the Scientific Career Path: https://www.radboudumc.nl/en/intranet/research/scientific-career-path
