Brigit Thomassen

Hello everyone! I’m Brigit Thomassen and I have a background in Biology (bachelor at Leiden university) and Neurobiology (master at the University of Amsterdam). I’m really into neuroscience—especially cognitive neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, and neuropathology and I love taking an interdisciplinary approach to better understand both the fundamental and applied sides of neuroscience. What drives me is wanting to improve patient well-being and quality of life. Through my internships, I’ve gotten hands-on experience with many aspects of neuroscience like neuropsychological assessments, performing and analyzing MRI-scans, cellular research, coordinating data collection, and maintaining patient contact. Previous experience has provided me with the foundation to be well prepared for my current role.

Right now, I have a coordinating and assisting role in an interdisciplinary research team called GRIP (which stands for GuaRding qualIty of survivorship). Our goal is to improve the quality of life for brain tumor patients by looking at interventions for common symptoms they experience—like fatigue (GRIP on fatigue study), anxiety (GRASS study), cognitive deficits (TRUE-GRIT study), and low perceived physical fitness (FeelFit study). I’m heavily involved in data collection for these studies. This includes running neuropsychological tests, performing repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for TRUE-GRIT, and assisting with the physical screening and training of FeelFit participants. I also manage study inclusions, GRIP team meetings, and keep in contact with (possible new) participants.