Professor Natasha M. Appelman-Dijkstra is an internist-endocrinologist at the Leiden University Medical Center. Since September 2022 she is the director of the Academic Residency Program in Internal Medicine of the LUMC and its surrounding hospitals. Furthermore she leads the Bone Center of the LUMC, a (inter)national Reference Center for Bone and Mineral disorders, participating in the European Reference Networks for Rare Bone Disorders (ERN BOND) and the Reference Network for Rare Endocrine Conditions (Endo-ERN). She received a Young Investigators award of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research in 2014, an Young Investigators award in 2018 from the Rare Bone Disease Alliance and received the Ian T Boyle Award of the European Calcified Tissue Society in 2022, an award presented to young scientists who have made significant progress and contribution to the field of bone and calcified tissue. Within Europe she coordinating the European Registries for Rare Endocrine and Bone conditions (EuRREB, www.eurreb.eu) and is coordinates the Registries workpackages within ERN BOND and Endo-ERN, 2 EU4Health projects. Professor Natasha M.Appelman-Dijkstra serves as a medical advisor for many patient associations, is part of the Dutch national indication committee for Burosumab and was one of the main authors on the Dutch Osteoporosis guideline.

More information about Natasha Appelman-Dijkstra

Professor Natasha  M. Appelman-Dijkstra  is an internist-endocrinologist at the Leiden University Medical Center. Since September 2022 she is the director of the Academic Residency Program in Internal Medicine of the LUMC and its surrounding hospitals. Furthermore she leads the Bone Center of the LUMC, a (inter)national Reference Center for Bone and Mineral disorders, participating in the European Reference Networks for Rare Bone Disorders (ERN BOND)  and the Reference Network for Rare Endocrine Conditions (Endo-ERN).

She received a Young Investigators award of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research in 2014, an Young Investigators award in 2018 from the Rare Bone Disease Alliance and received the Ian T Boyle Award of the European Calcified Tissue Society in 2022, an award presented to young scientists who have made significant progress and contribution to the field of bone and calcified tissue.

Within Europe she coordinating the European Registries for Rare Endocrine and Bone conditions (EuRREB, www.eurreb.eu) and is coordinates the Registries workpackages within ERN BOND and Endo-ERN, 2 EU4Health projects.

Professor Natasha M.Appelman-Dijkstra serves as a medical advisor for many patient associations, is part of the Dutch national indication committee for Burosumab and was one of the main authors on the Dutch Osteoporosis guideline. 

Academic carreer

Research on the natural history and mechanisms of rare bone and mineral diseases encompasses clinical, biochemical, imaging, and genetic studies. Externally funded investigations include the long-term skeletal and extra-skeletal effects of sclerostin deficiency (Van Buchem disease), osteoporosis and hypothyroidism.

Her primary focus area involves Fibrous Dysplasia/McCune Albright (FD/MAS), highlighted by an ongoing investigator-initiated placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial examining denosumab's efficacy in FDMAS treatment as well as leading the European registry on the disease.

Additionally, she serves as the coordinator of the EU registry for rare bone and mineral conditions (EuRR-Bone) and the EU registry for rare endocrine conditions (EuRRECa), www.eurreb.eu . Both initiatives are financially supported by the European Union, supervising the design and building of various condition specific modules where we collect clinician reported outcomes as well as patient related outcomes via a patient facing platform. Within this role she also works on patient related outcomes, with work encompassing coping mechanisms, quality of life, illness perceptions, and pain management within rare bone and mineral conditions.

Finally, she leads in various studies in osteoporosis. Here one of her main projects is the Impact Microindentation Technique (IMT), a novel method for assessing bone material properties in vivo.

She received her PhD in June 2015 from the Leiden University with a thesis on Longterm consequences of growth hormone replacement and cranial irradiaton, promotor prof. Alberto Pereira