Dr. Maartje G. Huijbers is associate professor and group leader at the department of Human Genetics and the department of Neurology at LUMC in Leiden, The Netherlands. Maartje’s career started in the lab of Josep Dalmau (UPenn, Philadelphia) where she contributed to the discovery of two new antigens for central nervous system autoimmunity. She continued her passion for neuroimmunology research by starting a PhD in the lab of Prof. dr. Jan Verschuuren and Prof. Dr. Silvère van der Maarel at LUMC. Maartje obtained her PhD in 2016 from Leiden University for her work on the pathomechanism of MuSK myasthenia gravis (a neuromuscular autoimmune disease). Using in vitro and in vivo models she studied whether and how patient-derived IgG4 causes myasthenic muscle weakness. During her PhD and post doc she visited the Steve Burden lab at New York University where she unravelled the mechanism by which IgG4 MuSK autoantibodies cause myasthenia gravis. During her post doc she investigated the therapeutic potential of FcRn inhibition on MuSK myasthenia gravis and continued her work on neuromuscular autoimmune diseases at LUMC which escalated into the neuroimmunology group. Maartje has received fellowships from EMBO, The Dutch Science organization, LUMC, Health Holland, the EU and Prinses Beatrix Spierfonds to support this work.

Currently, the translational research in her group, in close collaboration with clinicians, focusses on understanding the cause and consequences of (IgG4) autoantibodies and B cells and their characteristics in these autoimmune diseases. The ultimate ambition being to either prevent or cure the onset of IgG4 autoimmune (neuromuscular) diseases. Together with a pharmaceutical partner, one therapeutic (a MuSK agonist) which stems from her own research, is being tested for the first time in phase I and phase II clinical trials.

Aside from her passion for science she is committed to fostering the next generation of scientists and improve research culture for example as a teacher, lecturer and work group leader for a variety of courses for (bio)medical students including Advanced Immunology and Mechanisms of Disease. She furthermore shares insights and answer questions from patients and the general public at yearly patient days, by lecturing at secondary schools or by providing interviews for a variety of media platforms.

She was active as a board member of the LUMC Young faculty Network to educate, inform and advocate for early and mid-career scientists and was co-founder of the Muscle2Meet conference to unionize neuromuscular scientists and MYOS, the youth section of Spierziekten Centrum Nederland. As a recently appointed vice dean of research she now aims to strengthen the LUMC research organization through e.g. implementation of recognition and rewards initiatives like implementation of transparent academic career tracks and open science.