Specialization
Medical Psychology, Biological Psychology, Immunology, Epidemiology, Fatigue syndromes
Focus of research
My research investigates the psychobiology of medical disorders, with the aim to understand and mitigate the impact of disease. My dual expertise in psychology and immunology allows me to approach this topic in a genuinely interdisciplinary manner, whereby I integrate methods and concepts from both fields, and apply these to experimental laboratory studies, clinical research, and epidemiological analyses. More recently my work has expanded to include Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a source of novel approaches to the analysis and modification of human biology and behavior. The latter program of research is funded by two H2020 consortium grants, of which I am a lead and a coordinator, and involves intensive collaborations with groups accross continental Europe, the UK, and the US. Another important line of research focuses on biomedical mechansims in ME/CFS and related post-infectious fatigue syndromes, such as Long-COVID, Q-fever and Lyme's disease. This research has recently been awarded with an 8-year program grant (7.2M Euro) to set up a national infrastructure for research into ME/CFS, which includes a biobank and patient registry.