Barbara Willekens

Barbara Willekens is a neurologist subspecialized in multiple sclerosis and neuroinflammatory diseases. In June 2021, she defended her PhD thesis entitled ‘Towards patient-tailored treatment in multiple sclerosis: a dendritic cell-based vaccine for the treatment of multiple sclerosis’ and obtained the degree of Doctor in Medical Sciences, at the University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium. Currently, she leads the multidisciplinary Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroinflammatory Diseases clinic at the Antwerp University Hospital (Edegem, Belgium) and is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Antwerp. Her clinical and research interests are related to clinical, immunological and therapeutic aspects of multiple sclerosis and rare neuroinflammatory diseases, including NMOSD, MOGAD and Susac syndrome. Horlait-Dapsens medical foundation grantee in 2020, she started a 1-year part-time clinical and research fellowship on MOGAD and NMOSD at the Erasmus Medical Center, ErasMS, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in 2021. She is the coordinating investigator of a FWO-TBM funded multicenter clinical trial investigating the effects of metformin add-on treatment in progressive multiple sclerosis and co-principal investigator in a Horizon 2020 funded phase I clinical trial of dendritic cell based treatment in multiple sclerosis.