Biography

Mireille Bekker completed her training in Medicine at the VU Medical Center  in Amsterdam and subsequently obtained her MD in 2002. She performed research on the pathofysiology of the increased nuchal translucency in several mouse models and human fetuses. Her research focussed on fetal cardiovascular and lymphatic development. During her research she worked at the department of Anatomy and Embryology of the Leiden University Center in Leiden and the department of obstetrics in the VU Medical Center. She was awarded her PhD in 2007. She started her training to become a gynecologist in 2005 and became a senior specialist registrar Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2011. During her clinical training years she continued to work on her research regarding the development of cardiovascular and lymphatic development together with the departments of Anatomy and Embryology of the Academic Medical Center and Immunology of the VU Medical Center. This was rewarded by the PhD thesis of Yolande de Mooij in 2011. From 2011 till 2014 she performed a fellowship Perinatology in the VU Medical Center and Radboud University Center in Nijmegen. Since june 2015 she works in the University Medical Center of Utrecht as a gynaecologist-perinatologist.

Her current research focuses on intrauterine fetal development and long term-outcomes; prenatal screening, diagnosis and therapy (ultrasound/MRI/genetic testing); genetic disorders and innovation &technologies in obstetric health care.

Current Research Projects

• Development of congenital cardiac defects in relation to increased nucal translucency
• Perinatal outcome of fetal echogenic bowel on second trimester ultrasound
• Prenatal diagnosis of coarctation aorta
• Non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT), cell free DNA in maternal blood (TRIDENT study)
• Home telemonitoring of fetal conditonion and maternal bloodpressure (HOTEL study)
• Implementation of a first trimester prediction model for macrosomia and preeclampsia (RESPECT study)