People of Biomedial MR

MSc. Lieke van Dongen

During my Master's in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, I developed a strong interest in the gut-brain axis and the impact of gastrointestinal disorders on brain function. By joining the BioMR group in 2025, I got the opportunity to explore this field further while developing my research skills as a PhD candidate. 

My study focusses on investigating the neural pathways associated with chronic severe fatigue in Inflammatory Bowel Disease at 7 tesla MRI. Over 40% of IBD patients in remission suffer from chronic severe fatigue, significantly impacting the patients' quality of life. The underlying causes of this chronic fatigue are unclear, limiting treatment options. Therefore, we aim to explore these underlying neural pathways by focussing on a variaty of consequences of gut-brain axis dysregulation, including blood-brain barrier integrity, functional brain deficits, metabolic changes and possible associated neuroinflammation. This multidisciplinary project is a collaboration between gastrointestinal experts, neuroscientitst from the Donders Institute and other experts in the field. Together, these fatigue-related underlying neural pathways will be investigated, potentially allowing for more targeted treatment in the future.