Biography

Cora Nijboer was born on November 5^th 1980. She studied Medical Biology at Utrecht University which she graduated with honors in 2003. She started as a PhD student in 2003 at a collaborative project between the Laboratory of Neuroimmunology and Developmental Origins of Disease (NIDOD) and the Department of Neonatology at the UMCU under supervision of Professor Heijnen and Professor van Bel. She studied novel treatment strategies to combat neonatal brain damage after hypoxia-ischemia. In 2008 this work resulted in her PhD thesis: “Protecting the newborn brain: molecular mechanisms & therapeutic targets”.  

After finishing her PhD she continued her research as a post-doctoral researcher at the NIDOD Laboratory of the UMCU. She has extensively studied how peripheral treatment with small (peptide) inhibitors of crucial cell signaling pathways, including NF-κB, JNK and p53, can reduce cerebral cell death after hypoxia-ischemia in newborn rodents. Her area of interest also includes regenerative mesenchymal stem cell treatment and white matter injury in preterm neonates.

She was awarded a WKZ Research Fund (2013), a fellowship grant of ‘Hersenstichting Nederland’ (2014),  a Hersenstichting The Next Step grant (2017), a Marie Sklodowska-Curie CoFund grant (2018) and she leads a project at ZonMw-TAS (2011-2020). Furthermore she has collaborations with Industrial partners like Chiesi Pharmaceuticals and Nutricia Research.

She is currently Associate Professor and group leader of the research line “Neuroprotection and Neuroregeneration” within the NIDOD Lab and supervises a team of PhD students, post-docs, technicians and students. She works in very close collaboration with clinicians of the Department of Neonatology.

Research line

Neuroprotection and Neuroregeneration of the newborn brain

Most recent key publications

1:van Tilborg E, Achterberg EJM, van Kammen CM, van der Toorn A, Groenendaal F, Dijkhuizen RM, Heijnen CJ, Vanderschuren LJMJ, Benders MNJL, Nijboer CH. Combined fetal inflammation and postnatal hypoxia causes myelin deficits and autism-like behavior in a rat model of diffuse white matter injury. GLIA. (2018) 66: 78-93.

2: Van Tilborg E, de Theije CGM, van Hal M, Wagenaar N, de Vries LS, Benders M, Rowitch DH, Nijboer CH. Origin and dynamics of oligodendrocytes in the developing brain: implications for perinatal white matter injury. GLIA (2018) 66: 221-238.

3: Wagenaar N, de Theije CGM, de Vries LS, Groenendaal F, Benders MJNL, Nijboer CH. Promoting neuroregeneration after perinatal arterial ischemic stroke: Neurotrophic factors and mesenchymal stem cells. Pediatric Research (2018) 83: 372-384.

4:Braccioli L, Heijnen CJ, Coffer PJ, Nijboer CH. Delayed administration of neural stem cells after hypoxia-ischemia reduces sensorimotor deficits, cerebral lesion size and neuroinflammation in neonatal mice. Pediatric Research (2017) 81:127-135.

5: Van Tilborg E, Heijnen CJ, Benders MJ, van Bel F, Fleiss B, Gressens P, Nijboer CH. Impaired oligodendrocyte maturation in preterm infants: potential therapeutic targets. Progress in Neurobiology (2016) 136:28-49.

6: Donega V, Nijboer CH, van Velthoven CT, Youssef SA, de Bruin A, van Bel F, Kavelaars A, Heijnen CJ. Assessment of long-term safety and efficacy of intranasal mesenchymal stem cell treatment for neonatal brain injury in the mouse. Pediatr Res. 2015; doi: 10.1038/pr.2015.145