CINP INterviews

1. Tell us a little about yourself, your current work and where you are based.

I am a Psychiatrist& Clinical Pharmacologist (MD&PhD) working at Parnassia Groep in Amsterdam with honorary positions as Professor at St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences in Bangalore (India) and Senior Lecturer at King’s College London (UK). I set up the first non-commercial outpatient Pharmacogenetic Clinic in Europe in 2017, initiated the Guideline Implementation of Pharmacogenetics in Clinical Psychiatry from without the Dutch Psychiatric Association, and also the Clinical Pharmacogenetics Recommendations from the Section Genetics of the World Psychiatric Association that came out in 2023. I also lead the non-commercial EU-funded Horizon2020 investigator-initiated PSY-PGx Project. I am a member of the Dutch Pharmacogenetics Working Group (DPWG), the Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) antipsychotics group, the CERSI-UK mood disorder and antipsychotics working groups, the national board of the Dutch Society for Clinical Pharmacology, the ECNP Transcriptomics&Genomics Working Group, and an Editorial Board member of the British Journal of Psychiatry, Pharmaceuticals and the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine.

2. What sparked your interest in neuropsychopharmacology, and what interests you most about the field today?

During my Psychiatry internship over 25 years back, I was stationed at an old psychiatric hospital, where many patients had lived for decades and had been exposed to huge dosages of antipsychotics for decades as well. Unfortunately, many patients suffered from quite impressive and hindering side effects such as ‘the fly catcher’ or rabbit syndrome. These can sustain even many years after lowering the dose and it demonstrated the importance of evaluating medication and dosage and intervene earlier when necessary. Later, I spend some time at the Dutch FDA (CBG-MEB) advising on clinical studies to pharmaceuticals companies and evaluating pharmaceutical registration applications from pharmaceutical companies, where assessment of side effects and clinical efficacy of pharmaceuticals both were key. During my PhD at the Academic Medical Center Amsterdam, I also spend some time at the Cardiff University learning hands-on quantitative PCR techniques at the lab. During my clinical pharmacology training I worked at an expert oncoly center, where a large pharmacogenetic trial was running that inspired me to implement pharmacogenetics as one tool to assist in fine-tuning medication prescription when I started my work as a psychiatrist.

3. What does CINP membership mean to you?

It is a vibrant and stimulation environment, with many highly knowledgably colleagues, and a great opportunity to interact with them during meetings. I am grateful the CINP asked to start the CINP Global Networking Community Pharmacogenetics, that I am happy to Chair and am currently extending with additional countries allowing for global collaboration on improving psychopharmacological treatment for people suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders.

4. What do you enjoy doing outside work?

Love to spend time with my family and friends, play my violin in a symphony orchestra and string quartet, read books, cook, eat and work out (gym).

5. What might fellow CINP members be surprised to learn about you?

I love to bike and in the South of France and biked Mont Ventoux 3 times: the first time in 2007 and last year with my husband and our 2 children. Probably this last time was one of the proudest moments of my life, even though I was so much slower than in 2007. For me group success is mostly more important than solo achievements.