Amsterdam Movement Sciences

Grants given to young academics have a multi layered effect; they can bring innovative research results in the exact direction the institute is aiming for; they often bring new, multidisciplinary research collaboration, and can give young aspiring academics the push they want in their career.

Below are some 2018 testimonials from AMS laureates, which show what the AMS grants have brought them.

Melissa Hooijmans on her Early career grant 2018

Melissa Hooijmans

In 2018, I received a personal grant from Amsterdam Movement Sciences to develop Imaging technologies to map post-traumatic muscle fibrosis and its functional impact. This grant is an interdisciplinary cooperation between the departments of Biomedical Engineering & Physics, Department of Radiology & Nuclear Medicine and the Faculty of Human Movement Sciences. Currently, we are still working on the implementation of these innovative techniques.

On a more scientific note this grant also initiated a new collaboration with the department of Human Movement Sciences at VU University, focused on comparing two advanced imaging modalities for measuring muscle architectural features. In addition, the research findings are currently serving as input for a larger grant application. Hopefully, it will lead to even more interdisciplinary collaborations and grant applications in the future.

More on Melissa Hooijmans.

Tenure development grants 2018

Marjolein van der Krogt

In 2018, the AMS Innovation Call for Tenure Development financed the project PREdictive SimulaTion of Impaired Gait Evaluations (PRESTIGE), aiming to develop and validate simulations that predict the effect of impairments on gait. With the funding, a part-time post-doc was hired (Niels Waterval), a joint PhD trajectory in collaboration with Griffith University in Australia was set up (Kirsten Veerkamp), and dedicated research time for the PI (Marjolein van der Krogt) was made possible. In collaboration with the TU Delft (Thomas Geijtenbeek), we studied the effect of weakness, contractures and spasticity on gait.

The first two publications are now submitted, evaluating the effect of different cost functions for predictive simulations, and predicting the effect of calf muscle weakness on gait, compared with experimental patient data. Work on simulating the effects of contractures and spasticity, and comparing this with experimental patient data, is ongoing.

Furthermore, Niels Waterval acquired additional funding from the Innovative Medical Device Initiative (IMDI) ‘Break Through Projects’ (1,5 y full-time postdoc), to develop precision simulations and predict the effect of individual optimal ankle foot orthoses for patients with calf muscle weakness. Ultimately, we aim to further develop this simulation framework, in order to predict the effect of different treatments on ait for our patient populations.

More on Marjolein van der Krogt.

Jaap van Netten

Thanks to the AMS grant for our research project DIALOAD, and with additional funding obtained elsewhere, we are now in the middle of two prospective studies.

With these studies, we aim to unravel biomechanical and behavioural mechanisms of the development of foot ulcers in people with diabetes (study 1), and the healing of these ulcers once developed (study 2). These studies contribute to the development of a new and comprehensive load-capacity model for people with diabetic foot disease.

Stimulated by this grant, we have been able to increase our inter-disciplinary and inter-departmental collaborations within AMS, but also collaborations with other Dutch hospitals and research groups in Australia and the US.

More on Jaap van Netten.

AMS Laureates 2018