About the AFIP Foundation

Anna is currently doing her MSc in Biomedical Sciences with a specialization in Science Communication (VU). Since the beginning of 2023, Anna has been working at the AFIP foundation as Social Media intern.

To contribute to the connection between research and the public, she mainly focuses on publishing on social media to inform and empower people dealing with atrial fibrillation. Furthermore, she is helping writing new letters, posting blog articles and she contributes to the organization of

Nhi completed a BSc in Biomedical Sciences and is now in her graduation phase of the Master’s program ‘Management, Policy analysis and Entrepreneurship in the Health & Life Sciences’ with a specialization in Management & Entrepreneurship (VU).

As an intern, Nhi is involved in managing various social media platforms of AFIP Foundation. She is also involved in writing newsletters, blog articles on the website and involved in organizing various events within AFIP. She is also working on writing her thesis about which lifestyle interventions reduce stress in people with atrial fibrillation and how the AFIP Foundation can raise awareness within people with stress and atrial fibrillation. To do this, she is doing literature research and analyzing different perspectives of professionals and people with atrial fibrillation regarding stress and atrial fibrillation through interviews and surveys.

Prof. dr. dr. Bianca Brundel has been researching the molecular mechanisms responsible for the development and aggravation of atrial fibrillation for 20 years. She also strives to discover new targets for medicines. She began this research in 1996 at the UMCG in Groningen, under the supervision of Prof. I. van Gelder and Prof. dr. H. Crijns, both experts in the clinical treatment of atrial fibrillation. For her research, Prof. Brundel developed unique experimental model systems for atrial fibrillation: the cultured cardiac cell model and Drosophila (fruit flies) model. She has successfully used both systems to unravel mechanisms responsible for atrial fibrillation and has been able to identify potential medicine. She also works closely with (inter)national researchers such as Prof. dr. S. Nattel (Montreal Heart Institute, Canada) and Dr. N. de Groot (EMC). Since January 2016 she has been working at the Physiology department of the VUmc in Amsterdam.

Agnes Muskens has been a certified nurse since 1975 and subsequently specialized as an Intensive Care nurse.

Since 2000 worked as a nurse assistant in the Department of Clinical Electrophysiology. Here she wrote the first ICD patient brochure for the EMC in 2001. She also organized patient information days for this target group. She started after 2006 as a research nurse in clinical electrophysiology.

Since 2018 she has been involved with the AFIP foundation, where she is the point of contact for all questions, among other things. She also supports the studies of the AFIP foundation and is the point of contact for the participants in these studies.

Since the establishment of AFIP in 2016, Myrthe Kuipers has been working for the foundation as a project manager. Myrthe has an MSc in Business Administration with a specialization in Digital Business (UvA).

As a project manager, Myrthe is involved in raising awareness about atrial fibrillation. She is also involved in increasing patient involvement in the AFIP foundation. For this she coordinates the brainstorming group consisting not only of patients with atrial fibrillation, but also researchers in this field. In addition, she takes care of communication between the different target groups, and organizes educational meetings for patients to provide background information about atrial fibrillation, as well as information about the latest results of research.

Prof. dr. Natasja MS de Groot works as a cardiologist-electrophysiologist (electrophysiologist is a medical specialist in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias) at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. She studied medicine at the University of Leiden after which she undertook PhD research into the mechanism of atrial arrhythmias at both the Leiden University Medical Center and the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht. She completed her training as a cardiologist at the Leiden University Medical Center. Since 2009 she has been working at the Erasmus Medical Center where she leads the translational electrophysiology research group. She is also the principal investigator of the Academic Center of Excellence for Atrium Fibrillation.

She is co-author of several international guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. In her clinical activities she specializes in the treatment of atrial arrhythmias in patients with congenital heart defects, cardiac arrhythmias in children, and genetically determined cardiac arrhythmias. In 2014 she was appointed Associate Professor and in 2015 she became a board member of the European Heart Rhythm Association, where she is responsible for communication with healthcare professionals and patients within the European member states.