We present

2026, June: Dr. Van der Heijden presents at the Johns Hopkins Cerebellum Journal Club, online.

2026, April: Graduate student May Kretzer presents a poster at the Society of Biological Psychiatry symposium in New York City, New York.

2026, February: Medical student Austin Fitzgerald presents a poster at the Pan American Section Movement Disorder Society in Houston, Texas.

2026, February: Graduate student Kristen Crane presents a poster at the International Symposium on Paediatric Movement Disorders in Barcelona, Spain.

2025, November: Dr. Van der Heijden attends the DMRF workshop on Brain Stimulation in Dystonia in Atlanta, Georgia.

2025, September: Dr. Van der Heijden presented her work at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

2025, August: Undergraduate students Annie Walls, Presley Pickeral, and Sydnee Rhodes presented at VT’s and FBRI’s undergraduate symposiums. Annie and Presley win awards for their posters!

2025, July: Dr. Van der Heijden was interviewed on the Big Science, Small Pod podcast.

2025, July: Dr. Van der Heijden joined the DMRF’s medical and scientific advisory council.

2025, July: Medical student Austin Fitzgeral published her first data preprint:
Modeling Laryngeal Dystonia through Spectral Analyses of Vocalizations in a Dystonia Mouse Model

2025, May: Graduate student Alyssa Lyon published the lab’s first data preprint:
Purkinje Cell spike patterns do not correlate with nuclei cell spike patterns in mouse models for cerebellar disease.

2025, March 14-15: Dr. Van der Heijden and research assistant Jonathan Coello presented at the Mid-Atlantic Society for Developmental Biology meeting in Richmond. Jonathan won a poster award!

2024, November 27: We published a ViewPoint in Journal of Neuroscience about the importance of studying neural function during development.

2024, November 12-15: Graduate Student Alyssa Lyon presented her work at the International Congress for Ataxia Research in London, UK.

2024, October 23: Dr. Van der Heijden spoke with eLife about our choice to submit our work there.

2024, October 17/18: Dr. Van der Heijden attended the DMRF workshop on Dystonia Pathophysiology in Frankfurt, Germany.

2024, July 25: eLife magazine published an Insight about how our work may inform future therapeutics.

2024, July 2: Texas Children’s Hospital published a news release on our latest paper in eLife.

2024, June 14: We received our Notice of Award for our R00 from the NINDS!

2024, May 23: First paper from the Van der Heijden lab was published in Cerebellum.

2024, Mar 11: We will be participating in the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Brain School. Missed it? Watch our video on listening to brain signals here.

2024, Mar 5: The lab’s first grant was awarded by the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation. Read more here.

2024, Feb 22: Seminar at Roanoke College, Roanoke, Virginia

2024, Feb 14: Learn more about what our lab will be doing at Virginia Tech!

2024, Jan 30: Johns Hopkins Cerebellum Journal Club, online

2024, Jan 2: Van der Heijden Lab Doors open!!

2023, Nov 10: Tyler’s Hope for a Dystonia Cure, Think Tank, Wachington DC

2023, Sep 13: Movement Disorders Grand Rounds, Rush University, online

2023, Aug 6-11: Cerebellum Gordon Research Conference, Lewiston, Maine
2023, Aug 5-6: Cerebellum Gordon Research Seminar, Lewiston, Maine

2023, Jun 1-3: International Dystonia Symposium, Dublin, Ireland
2023, May 30: Dystonia Emerging Leaders Meeting, Dublin, Ireland