Marieke Niesters appointed as head of the Pain group

‘I was already doing a lot of research in collaboration with Prof Geert Jan Groeneveld, who used to head the Pain group’, says Niesters. ‘When he became CEO last year, he was looking to hand over the group’s leadership, and I was glad to be considered and accepted for the role. I enjoy being involved in scientific research and the development of new pain therapies at CHDR, while also continuing to treat patients. Fortunately, there's already a strong overlap between the two roles thanks to our ongoing collaboration.’

The combination of science and medicine suits Niesters well. She studied both biomedical sciences and medicine at Leiden University, later earning her PhD with a thesis on chronic pain. She then trained as an anesthesiologist, with a focus on pain management. Since 2018, she has served as a staff member of the anaesthesiology department of the LUMC, and in 2020, she took over leadership of the hospital’s pain clinic. ‘I stepped away from my work in the operating room last year,’ she notes. ‘While I enjoyed that part of the job, it was time to focus more fully on pain medicine.’

One of the research areas Niesters is eager to pursue further is the study of respiratory depression—a serious side effect of opioid analgesics—a topic already under investigation at LUMC. At CHDR, she wants to strengthen the bridge between early phase research in healthy study participants and research in patients, for example by expanding the PainCart® with biomarkers for the evaluation of processes involved in chronic pain and by conducting more clinical research in patients.