M.C. Brouwer MD PhD

MD PhD M.C. Brouwer

Position

Medical Specialist

Main activities

Education, Patient care, Research

Specialisation

Neurological infectious diseases

Focus of research

AMC Department of Neurology

The Department of Neurology performs clinical and translational research within three research themes: infection & inflammation, cerebrovasculair disorders, and movement disorders. The themes are imbedded in the nine translational research programs of Amsterdam Neuroscience, the research institute of neuroscience investigators in the Amsterdam area. All staff members of the Department of Neurology are involved in research and collaborate within Neuroscience Amsterdam, with other academic and non-academic hospitals, and with international research groups.

Infection & Inflammation

We perform clinical translational research in the field of neurological infections & inflammation. We perform prospective clinical cohort studies, randomized clinical trials, and experimental research, combining our clinical expertise with groundbreaking, translational approaches using clinical data, human samples, next generation sequencing, in vitro techniques, and mouse models in the era's of bacterial meningitis & encephalitis, infections after stroke, septic encephalopathy, and inflammatory diseases of peripheral nerves and muscles.

Dr. Brouwer

The focus of Dr. Brouwer’s research is on neurological infectious diseases, including bacterial meningitis, viral meningitis, chronic meningitis and neuroborreliosis. To this aim he has set up a nation-wide genetic association study on community-acquired bacterial meningitis (MeninGene study) and a study on suspected meningitis and encephalitis patients (PACEM study).

During his PhD Dr. Brouwer studied host genetic factors influencing bacterial meningitis in the nationwide cohort study on culture proven bacterial meningitis. By March 2017, 2300 patients have been included in this ongoing study. With this study we showed that adjunctive dexamethasone has successfully been implemented in the Netherlands, leading to a nationwide reduction of mortality and morbidity of bacterial meningitis. Furthermore, we identified common genetic variants in complement component 3 and 5 that influence susceptibility and outcome of bacterial meningitis. In several translational research projects we used clinical and genetic data to study pathofysiology of bacterial meningitis and identify new adjunctive treatments.

Amsterdam UMC Research Institutes

AMC departments

Neurology

Key publications

Brouwer Matthijs C., Thwaites Guy E., Tunkel Allan R., van de Beek Diederik Dilemmas in the diagnosis of acute community-acquired bacterial meningitis Lancet 2012;380 (9854):1684-1692 [PubMed]
Brouwer Matthijs C., Meijers Joost C. M., Baas Frank, van der Ende Arie, Pfister Hans-Walter, Giese Armin, van de Beek Diederik, Koedel Uwe Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 influences cerebrovascular complications and death in pneumococcal meningitis Acta neuropathologica 2014;127 (4):553-564 [PubMed]
Brouwer Matthijs C., Tunkel Allan R., McKhann Guy M., van de Beek Diederik Brain Abscess New England journal of medicine 2014;371 (5):447-456 [PubMed]
van de Beek D., Cabellos C., Dzupova O., Esposito S., Klein M., Kloek A. T., Leib S. L., Mourvillier B., Ostergaard C., Pagliano P., Pfister H. W., Read R. C., Sipahi O. Resat, Brouwer M. C. ESCMID guideline: diagnosis and treatment of acute bacterial meningitis Clinical microbiology and infection 2016;22 (Suppl. 3):S37-S62 [PubMed]
Savva Athina, Brouwer Matthijs C., Roger Thierry, Valls Serón Mercedes, le Roy Didier, Ferwerda Bart, van der Ende Arie, Bochud Pierre-Yves, van de Beek Diederik, Calandra Thierry Functional polymorphisms of macrophage migration inhibitory factor as predictors of morbidity and mortality of pneumococcal meningitis Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2016;113 (13):3597-3602 [PubMed]

All Publications

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION
2010 Doctor of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam (UvA).
2010 Board Certification Neurology
2002 Medical Degree, UvA.
2000 Master of Science, Medicine, UvA.
1988-95 Grammar school (V.W.O.), Het Nieuwe Eemland College, Amersfoort.

WORK EXPERIENCE
2012- Neurologist, Academic Medical Center (AMC), UvA, Amsterdam.
2011 Research Fellowship Klinikum Grosshadern, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany.
2010-11 Fellowship Neurological Infectious Diseases, Academic Medical Center (AMC), UvA, Amsterdam.
2003-10 Neurology Resident, AMC, UvA, Amsterdam.
2002 Neurology Resident, Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis - hospital, Amsterdam.
1998 Polio Vaccination and Sexual Transmitted Diseases Education project in Mpererwe, Uganda; Organized by the International Federation of Medical Students Associations.

DISSERTATION
2010 Bacterial meningitis in adults: clinical characteristics, risk factors and adjunctive therapy.

RESEARCH PROJECTS
2016 Bacterial blood-brain barrier traversal in pneumococcal meningitis: miniature dimensions of host-pathogen interaction. Amsterdam neuroscience innovation grant.
2013-15 Cerebrovascular complications in bacterial meningitis: from host genetics towards new therapies. Veni project nr. 016.136.078.
2011 The plasminogen system in bacterial meningitis. Cooperative project Department of Neurology, AMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Klinikum Grosshadern, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munchen, Germany (Prof. Dr. H.W. Pfister, Prof. Dr. U. Koedel).
2006-10 Ph.D. project “Bacterial meningitis in adults: clinical characteristics, risk factors and adjunctive treatment ”. Supervisor: Dr. D. van de Beek, Department of Neurology, AMC.
2000 Research project “Genetic typing of rhabdomyosarcomas and medulloblastomas.” Supervisor: Prof. Dr. F. Baas, Department of Genome Analysis, AMC.
1999 Research project “Induction of single nucleotide mutations in the Preseniline-1 gene by means of circular DNA/RNA fragments”. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. S. Krauss, Department of Molecular Genetics University of Tromsø, Norway.

GRANTS / SCHOLARSHIPS
2016 Amsterdam neuroscience innovation grant for blood-brain barrier model set-up
2014 AMC innovation project "Optimalisation and centralisation of multidisciplinary care for neurosarcoidosis patients"
2014 AMC-VuMC PhD student project
2013 ESCMID guideline preparation grant
2012 ZonMw Veni Grant
2011 BBMRI-NL Complementation Project Grant (shared PI-ship)
2011 EFNS Scientific Fellowship Grant
2011 ESCMID Research Grant
1999 EU Erasmus Grant

PRIZES
2011 VIZ O’Callaghan Award. Award of Dutch Society for Infectious Diseases for best thesis 2009-2010.
2011 ICAAC Program Committee Award. The ICAAC Program Committee Awards are established to encourage and recognize research excellence, through outstanding abstract preparation. Out of 1300 abstracts, 6 are selected that reflect high quality research, conducted with exhaustive data analysis, and of major importance to the field.
2011 AMC Excellent Thesis Award. Award for 2nd best thesis in the AMC 2010.
2010 Scientific Meeting Presentation Award Dutch Neurological Society (NVN).
2009 IDSA International Young Investigator Award. Awards are given to young investigators who submit excellent research to the IDSA annual meeting.

OTHER
2016 Section editor current opinion in infectious diseases
2014 Associate editor Neurology: Neuroimmunology and neuroinflammation
2011 Member Childhood Life-threatening Infectious Disease Study (EUCLIDS) FP7 projec (Prof. Dr. M. Levin, Imperial College London, UK)
2010 Associate Editor Faculty of 1000
2010 Member European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) Study Group on Infection of the Brain (ESGIB; Prof. Dr. S.L. Leib, University of Bern, Switzerland)

Research programmes

MD PhD M.C. Brouwer (Neuroinfection and inflammation)

PhD Students
J. Bodilsen

Prof. MD PhD D. van de Beek (Neuroinfection and Inflammation)

Current PhD Candidates