Niek van der Aa

Niek van der Aa was trained as a paediatrician and currently works as neonatology fellow at the Wilhelmina Children's Hospital in Utrecht, The Netherlands. He combines his clinical work with research in the field of brain development and brain injury in the newborn. As a visiting research fellow, he spent time at the department of neonatology at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA and at the Center for the Developing Brain, King's College, London, UK.

He has a special interest in neonatal stroke, and focuses on improving prediction of outcome, MRI studies and novel therapies. He was involved in the PASSIoN trial, a clinical study investigating the use of mesenchymal stem cells in newborns with neonatal stroke. By using advanced MRI techniques, he studies the impact of neonatal stroke on brain development, including the development of brain areas that were not primarily involved. By linking the MRI findings with long term outcome, he aims to get a better understanding of outcome and provide future patients with a more accurate prognosis.