Joris Deelen

Dr Joris Deelen is Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Data Sciences at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), where he aims to uncover key mechanisms of ageing and resilience and their contribution to human health and disease. His current research has a tripartite, integrated focus: (1) identifying genetic mechanisms underlying healthy ageing; (2) identifying individuals at risk of (multi)morbidity in the general population using biomarkers of ageing; and (3) improving healthy ageing in older adults through lifestyle interventions. To approach human health from an ageing perspective, he combines his expertise in (statistical) genetics and epidemiology, obtained during his PhD, with his expertise in molecular biology, obtained during nine years of research at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne, integrating epidemiological insights from human studies with cell- and model organism-based studies into causal ageing mechanisms.

Dr Deelen serves on the management team of the LUMC Theme for Innovation LEGend, and is Co-Chair of the Dutch Society for Research on Ageing, which connects scientists working on ageing across the Netherlands. He is also contributing to establishing a similar ageing network at the European level (EFAR), and has just been elected Chair of the Biological Section of the IAGG-ER board. In addition, he is a Management Committee member of the COST Action INFLAMomx, and, given his expertise in human ageing, serves as an editorial board member of PLOS Aging and Health, eLife, and the Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biomedical Sciences and Medical Sciences.