Personal profile

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Biography

Niels Eijkelkamp (18-07-1980) is PI at the laboratory of translational immunology. His research focusses on chronic pain, a major debilitating disease that affects >20% of the population. He aims to unravel mechanisms and to identify novel treatments of chronic pain by elucidating the role of the immune system and its interactions with the nervous system in chronic pain. His group is one of the very few groups in the Netherlands studying the mechanisms underlying pain. 

His group uses different experimental approaches to unravel molecular pain mechansims and identify novel treatment approaches with the ultimate aim to translate these basic research findings to chronic pain patients such as children with Juvenile Idiopathic arthritis and adults with chronic inflammatory disease and osteoarthtis.

Eijkelkamp graduated in 2003 with honors in Medical Biology (University of Utrecht). In 2009 he completed his PhD under supervision of Dr. Heijnen with his thesis entitled ‘GRK gatekeeper of pain and inflammation’. Prior to his PhD he worked for 1 year on stress and wound healing in the team led by Dr. Sheridan at the Ohio State University. As PostDoc he had a joint appointment at the UMCU and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to work on the role of GRKs in pain. Finally, he worked for 2 years on sensory transduction and signalling pathways in chronic pain in the laboratory of Dr. Wood at the University College London. Since 2013 he started his own group at the UMCU.

Side activities

Member of the editorial board of Brain, Behaviour & Immunity

Fellowship & awards

2019: Health Holland. Cytofuse

2019: TTW(NWO). It takes two to stop chronic pain: an innovative treatment with endogenous regulatory immune molecules.

2018: Dutch arthritis foundation (ReumaNL). Identification of inflammatory mediators in spinal liquor in relation to synovial nerve sprouting and pain in osteoarthritis.

2018: H2020-MSCA-ITN-2018 – BonepainII. An innovative European PhD training network in bone pain.

2017: WKZ child Health Boost Grant. co-applicant. Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, when does it hurt?

2015 Dutch arthritis foundation. Identification of inflammatory mediators in spinal liquor in relation to synovial nerve sprouting and pain in osteoarthritis.

2014 H2020-MSCA-ITN-2014 – Bonepain. Create an innovative European PhD training network in bone pain.

2013 Life science Seed grant Utrecht university. Title: Regulating neuroinflammation and sensory neuron function using a fusion protein of IL-4 and IL-10: a novel therapeutic strategy to block chronic pain.  

2010-2012 Rubicon fellowship of the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research (NWO). to perform research at the laboratory of Molecular Nociception of Prof Wood at the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research at University College of London, London, UK. Title: Novel mechanisms of chronic pain: regulated trafficking of sodium channels by GRK2.

External positions

Consultant en een founder van de Synerkine founders BV - Consultancy - Synerkine Pharma

1 Jan 202431 Dec 3999

Vice-chair of the scientific advisory board of Stichting MS Research - Independent vice chair; advise the board of on scientific matters, including proposals - Stichting MS research

1 Nov 202331 Dec 3999

Occasional, ad hoc, Consultancy (Moebius, petalouda therapeutics, Ono pharmaceuticals) - Consultancy with regard to the topic of NeuroImmunology of pain - Various

1 Jan 202231 Dec 3999

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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