Cure Alzheimer's Fund Cure Alzheimer's Fund

Geert Jan Biessels, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor of Neurology, UMC Brain Center of the University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands

Geert Jan Biessels is professor of neurology at the UMC Utrecht Brain Center, the Netherlands. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1997, registered as a neurologist in 2004, and was appointed as chair of Cerebrovascular Disease and Cognition in 2012.

His area of expertise is vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and small vessel disease (SVD), focusing on novel imaging markers that can help to improve diagnosis and prognostication and to identify targets for personalized treatment.

He is actively involved in several national and international VCI and SVD research networks, including STRIVE and HARNESS. He leads the Dutch Heart Brain Connection consortium and the international Meta VCI Map consortium. He was the Principal Investigator in two large RCTs in diabetes with cognitive outcomes. He participates in the H2020 programs SVDs@target and Recognised.

He has mentored over 40 Ph.D. students and has over 350 peer-reviewed publications. He is a Dutch Research Council Vidi and Vici laureate and received the Senior Investigator Award of the European Stroke Organisation in 2015. He was appointed Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh in 2016.

 

Related Research:

Disentangling the Role of Intracranial Arteriosclerosis in Alzheimer’s Disease Daniel Bos Frank J. Wolters Geert Jan Biessels Julia Neitzel Meike Vernooij 2022-02-10

Funded Research

These projects were made possible from Cure Alzheimer's Fund support.

Project Description Researchers Funding
Disentangling the Role of Intracranial Arteriosclerosis in Alzheimer’s Disease 2021, 2023

$339,258.55

Selected Publications

These published papers resulted from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund support.

Streiber, A. M., Kuenen, C., Pham, S. D. T., Neitzel, J., Bos, D., Siero, J. C. W., Zwanenburg, J. J. M., Dieleman, N., Biessels, G. J., & Vernooij, M. W. Intracranial arterial calcification and cerebrovascular function in the general aging population – A 7T MRI Study, Cerebral Circulation - Cognition and Behavior, January 29, 2026, Read More

Pham, S. D. T., Linders, M. B., Streiber, A. M., Kuenen, C., Siero, J. C. W., Dieleman, N., Zwanenburg, J. J. M., Neitzel, J., Bos, D., de Bruijne, M., Vernooij, M. W., & Biessels, G. J. Relation between cerebral small vessel function at 7T MRI and small vessel disease burden in a general ageing populatio, Cerebrovascular Diseases, November 10, 2025, Read More

Sweeney, M. D., Montagne, A., Sagare, A. P., Nation, D. A., Schneider, L. S., Chui, H. C., Harrington, M. G., Pa, J., Law, M., Wang, D. J. J., Jacobs, R. E., Doubal, F. N., Ramirez, J., Black, S. E., Nedergaard, M., Benveniste, H., Dichgans, M., Iadecola, C., Love, S., Bath, P. M., … Zlokovic, B. V. Vascular dysfunction — The disregarded partner of Alzheimer’s disease, Alzheimer's & Dementia, January 1, 2019, Read More

Back to Our Researchers