PhD Laura Kervezee

Research:

My research addresses the role of the circadian clock in human health and disease. The circadian clock generates 24-h rhythms in numerous physiological and behavioural processes, which helps the body to anticipate predictable daily changes in light, temperature, and food intake. Part of my research is dedicated to finding ways to optimize drug treatments by taking advantage of these 24-h rhythms in physiological processes. I am also interested in the physiological consequences of circadian misalignment, which occurs, for example, in night shift work, when the timing of sleep and food intake has shifted relative to the internal circadian clock. In addition, I study the use of chronobiological interventions to optimize circadian clock function in critically ill patients, in collaboration with the Department of Intensive Care at the LUMC.

Curriculum Vitae:

I completed my PhD in 2017 at the Leiden University Medical Center studying 24-hour rhythmicity in physiological processes that determine the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drug treatments in order to optimize drug treatments depending on the time of day that they are administered. I subsequently worked as a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, funded by a personal fellowship from the FRQS. Here, I investigated the physiological consequences of circadian misalignment in order to better understand the molecular mechanisms that contribute to the negative health effects associated with night shift work. In 2019, I joined the Circadian Clocks group at the LUMC. I coordinate the BioClock consortium (https://bioclockconsortium.org), a large network of Dutch universities and societal partners that was awarded a 10 million euro grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) to study how to maintain a healthy biological clock in our 24/7 society, in health care, and in the natural environment. In addition, I was awarded a Veni fellowship from the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research (ZonMw) for my project titled “It’s about time: strengthening human circadian clock function in critical illness”.