Mohammad Arfan Ikram

Biography

I am Professor and Chair of Epidemiology at the department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC Rotterdam, the Netherlands. I am also president of the Dutch Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMW), the largest public funder in healthcare in The Netherlands. I am principal investigator of the Rotterdam Study and a key collaborator in the CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) consortium. My research focuses on investigating the etiology of neurologic diseases in the elderly, with a particular focus on dementia, Alzheimer disease and healthy brain aging. The main areas of research are to elucidate the earliest signs of brain diseases, before clinical symptoms are present, and to understand how these lead to clinical manifestation of disease. Moreover, I am interested in preclinical signs that can be used to identify persons at highest risk of developing disease. More recently, I have expanded my research interests to focus on Healthy Longevity at large and determinants of Health care and Health care utilization.

For my research, I have used data from the large population-based Rotterdam Study and Rotterdam Scan Study that have followed nearly 15,000 persons for a period of nearly 30 years. A main focus on my research has been the use of MRI-imaging to understand brain disease. Also, I have used neuropsychological testing, genome- wide, exome chip, DNA-methylation and sequencing technologies, and recently electronic gait assessments. Not only am I interested in how these pre-clinical markers lead to clinical disease, I also want to disentangle the intricate relationships between these markers.

I am also active in various local and national research infrastructures, including EraCORe (clinic-based COVID- 19 cohort study), BBMRI-NL, Health-RI, X-omics, and Netherlands Cohorts Consortium. I have published over 1,050 international scientific papers (H-index = 103) and currently head a research group of 15 PhD-students, 3 post-docs, 3 MSc-students, and 5 research staff.

Education and Training

• MSc, Clinical Epidemiology
  Netherlands Institute of Health Sciences
• MD, Medicine
  Erasmus University Rotterdam
• PhD, Neuroepidemiology
  Erasmus University Rotterdam

Publications

• Changes in Cerebral Hemodynamics and Progression of Subclinical Vascular Brain Disease: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

  Ma Y, Bos D, Wolters FJ, Niessen W, Hofman A, Ikram MA, Vernooij MW. Stroke 2024 Dec 05

• Lessons learned for pandemic preparedness in the neurodegenerative research and clinical fields: an advice report based on Parkinson's disease as an example.

  Splinter MJ, Henderson EJ, Ben-Shlomo Y, Darweesh SKL, Sowa P, Wolters FJ, Velek P, Meijerink HJEM, Bakx P, Ikram MA, de Schepper EIT, Ikram MK, Licher S. BMC Neurol 2024 Dec 05

• Thyroid Function and Anthropometric Measures: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

  Roa Dueñas OH, Xu Y, Ikram MA, Peeters RP, Visser WE, Chaker L. Endocr Pract 2024 Dec 02

• Vertical Living and Longevity: Examining Mortality by Floor of Residence in an Elderly Population.

  Ginos BNR, Voortman T, Ikram MA. J Urban Health 2024 Nov 27

• Transcriptomic and epigenomic profiling reveals altered responses to diesel emissions in Alzheimer's disease both in vitro and in population-based data.

  Saveleva L, Cervena T, Mengoni C, Sima M, Krejcik Z, Vrbova K, Sikorova J, Mussalo L, de Crom TOE, Šímová Z, Ivanova M, Shahbaz MA, Penttilä E, Löppönen H, Koivisto AM, Ikram MA, Jalava PI, Malm T, Chew S, Vojtisek-Lom M, Topinka J, Giugno R, Rössner P, Kanninen KM. Alzheimers Dement 2024 Nov 23