Micha Wilhelmus is assistant professor at the research section of Behavioral and Translational Neuroscience since 2007. His research is concerned with finding therapeutic targets to counteract neurodegeneration, in particular for Alzheimer’s disease, using post-mortem (human and animal) brain tissue, biochemical and histochemical techniques, animal models as well as in vivo imaging. Recently, he investigated the level of neuroinflammation in human post-mortem brain tissue and the effect of certain transglutaminases on Amyloid-beta in a KO mouse model. Together with dr. Benjamin Drukarch, he studies the physical properties of neurotransmission in a slug-model. This research has the potential to instigate a shift in the paradigm of electric neurotransmission insofar as it aims to include thermodynamic effects on neurotransmission. Wilhelmus is also chair of the educational board of the master Neuroscience and the bachelor and master Biomedical Sciences at the VU.

Theoretical interests:

Wilhelmus’ theoretical focus is on the field of pharmacology, where the concepts ‘mechanism’ and ‘mode-of-action’ are not well-defined and used interchangeably. Most mechanisms in pharmacology are not fully understood, and the term ‘mode-of-action’ is used very loosely. Wilhelmus aims to 1) investigate how both concepts are currently used (and misused), and 2) to reconceptualize these concepts in a way that furthers pharmacological research.