Esther Meijer

Dr. Esther Meijer is internist-nephrologist at the Department of Interal Medicine, division of Nephrology at University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.  After performing a scientific internship at the Briscoe Laboratory, Children’s Hospital, Harvard University in Boston (2006-2007) during medical study, Esther was so enthusiastic about research, that she started  a PhD trajectory at the University Medical Center Groningen. Projects in her thesis focused on Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease and the potential detrimental role of vasopressin in this disease and in renal disease in general. After obtaining her PhD degree in 2011, she continued research on ADPKD and helped establishing the Polycystic Disease expert center in Groningen. She was study coordinator for a nationwide intervention trial in ADPKD and now coordinates follow-up of a national observational cohort consisting of almost 700 ADPKD patients. Her research focuses on improving current treatment with a vasopressin V2 receptor antagonist and finding markers to predict ADPKD progression. In clinical care, she sees patients with inherited cystic diseases in a specialized outpatient clinic within the expertise center in a multidisciplinary team.