Most brain disorders, including psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, are difficult to diagnose and study due to their substantial clinical, pathological, and genetic heterogeneity. This complexity is often overlooked, yet it plays a crucial role in determining disease mechanisms, progression, and patient outcomes.
The Holtman Lab, part of the University Medical Center Groningen, investigates this heterogeneity to better understand the biological basis of brain disorders. In collaboration with the Netherlands Brain Bank, the lab established the Netherlands Neurogenomics Database (NND), a platform that integrates clinical, genetic, and neuropathological data from deeply characterized human brain donors to enable systematic cross-disorder analyses.
Our research combines computational approaches with experimental neuroscience. We analyze post-mortem human brain material from the Netherlands Brain Bank to identify molecular and cellular signatures associated with disease heterogeneity. In parallel, we use human brain organoid models to experimentally investigate the functional effects of key genetic risk factors and environmental influences implicated in brain disorders.
By integrating human brain data with experimental model systems, the Holtman Lab aims to uncover shared and disorder-specific disease mechanisms, ultimately contributing to improved diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic strategies for brain disorders.
Brain autopsy studies show that many patients with brain disorders were clinically misdiagnosed. Moreover, after a patient receives a particular diagnosis, it is very difficult to predict how the disease will develop. Hence, there is a strong need for improved diagnosis and prognosis. The Netherlands Brain Bank has one of the largest and best characterized brain autopsy cohorts in the world. By studying the symptomatology of these donors, in conjunction with neuropathology, and genetics, my research group aims to build predictive models and statistical tools to better delineate and predict brain diseases and disease progression.
We investigate the clinical, genetic, and pathological diversity within and across brain disorders to identify distinct disease trajectories and biological subtypes.
Using deeply characterized post-mortem brain material from the Netherlands Brain Bank and the Netherlands Neurogenomics Database, we study the molecular architecture of brain disorders across diagnostic boundaries.
We use human brain organoids and other experimental systems to test the functional effects of genetic risk variants and environmental factors, linking molecular mechanisms to disease phenotypes.
University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG)
Biomedical Sciences (BMS)
Section Molecular Neurobiology
Internal Zipcode FB43
Antonius Deusinglaan 1
9700 AD Groningen
The Netherlands
University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG)
Biomedical Sciences (BMS)
Section Molecular Neurobiology
Antonius Deusinglaan 1
9713 AV Groningen
The Netherlands
location: Building 3215, 8th floor
