Erik Niks

Dr. Erik Niks is consultant pediatric and adult neurologist at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), the Dutch Expert Center for  Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD and BMD), Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD), and Acquired Neuromuscular Junction Diseases. He is head of the Pediatric Neuromuscular Center at the Willem-Alexander Pediatric Hospital of LUMC and leads a multidisciplinary team for diagnosis and treatment of pediatric neuromuscular diseases. At LUMC he is board member of the research theme Neuroscience, member of the Biobank committee, and coordinator of the half minors provided to medical and biomedical BSc students. He is chair of the Duchenne Center Netherland, a collaboration between LUMC, Radboudumc Nijmegen and the Center for Neurological Learning and Development Disabilities Kempenhaeghe. He is also member of the Dutch Center for Neuromuscular Diseases and the European Reference Network for Neuromuscular Diseases ERN EURO-NMD. After finishing his neurology training in 2008, he did a fellowship in myology funded by the Dutch Prinses Beatrix Fonds which included an honorary fellowship at Dubowitz Neuromuscular Centre at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London in 2010. He performed clinical, immunological, and epidemiological studies in seronegative and MuSK antibody positive myasthenia gravis in the Netherlands as part of his PhD. His research focus is on the natural history of chronic progressive neuromuscular conditions, in particular Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy, and the development of outcome parameters. These include parameters on muscle quality and function, quantitative muscle imaging using MRI, but also on circulating biomarkers genetic modifiers. A second focus is on therapy development for neuromuscular diseases. To this end, he is the principal investigator for clinical trials in muscular dystrophies and pediatric myasthenia gravis at LUMC-WAKZ and involved in academic pharma development at LUMC. Finally he is in volved in international research collaborations on the neurocognitive phenotype of dystrophinopathies. For all of these studies, inclusion and overview of a complete disease spectrum is essential and dr. Niks is therefore committed as coordinator of the nationwide patient registries for dystrophinopathies and LGMD in the Netherlands. He also coordinates the national biobank for DMD where standardized clinical assessments and biomaterials of pediatric and adult patients are collected through a collaboration between academic neuromuscular centers in the Netherlands.