"The goal of my research is to understand the effects of ageing on neuromuscular and cognitive aspects of mobility (physical function and physical activity), to maintain and promote mobility of older individuals in their environment, including the use of assistive technology."
Mirjam Pijnappels - A professor of tripping people up, full professor Neuromechanics at the Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, full professor Ageing & Vitality at AMS (Amsterdam Movement Sciences) and mother of three: time to put her in the spotlight!
You started out as a student at Radboud University Nijmegen and now you are a professor at VU Amsterdam: tell us a bit about your career journey.
I studied Biomedical Sciences at Radboud University, graduating in movement sciences in 1997. I started doing doctoral research work in Maastricht, which I subsequently continued (from 1999 onwards) in Amsterdam when a Movement Science vacancy came up. Here, I was given an opportunity to study the balance control system, with my PhD entailing me getting young and older adults to trip over obstacles and see what the effect of age is on regaining balance. Upon completing my PhD, I was able to continue my research into balance issues and falls in the elderly with a Veni and Vidi grant and I became a professor of Mobility in Ageing six years ago.
A professor of tripping people up?
Yep, I’ve stuck with it all this time and I’m also glad to still be using the films from my research work back then. We got participants to walk along a catwalk with planks that could suddenly appear from the ground and trip them. They were wearing a kind of parachute harness to stop them from actually falling. This enabled us in the lab to get some really solid data on how people trip over obstacles and unexpected steps and how they respond if their balance is challenged. We showed that the elderly are particularly lacking in muscle power (e.g. the ability to jump or sprint), which is already in decline after the age of 30, making it important to keep training ourselves! Nowadays, we’re using advanced treadmills to train elderly people to cope with balance problems.
Lab and field research
My Veni, Vidi and TOP projects allowed me to measure the neuromechanics of balance control in the movement lab combined with measuring the quality of day-to-day movement in older people’s home environment. These two tracks have remained significant aspects of my research work, i.e. both measuring balance in a controlled environment that can be monitored accurately in a lab on the one hand and measuring balance and movement in day-to-day life on the other. We developed algorithms to calculate the quality of day-to-day movement, which proved to predict falls in older people. In addition, we’re currently trying to use those algorithms for day-to-day movement quality in clinical populations, such as in Parkinson’s, diabetes or after knee or hip replacements.
I’m also researching various interventions for healthy ageing and fall prevention, with the aid of technological resources, which entails us measuring the effects of these on the quality and quantity of day-to-day movement too. Such as in the EU project PreventIT, in which we studied strength and balance exercises in day-to-day activities. Or fall prevention programmes like REACT or In Balans.
Are there enough ambitious women at VU Amsterdam?
Fortunately, there are a few female senior lecturers and professors in our faculty, but still not enough. I was appointed professor while heavily pregnant with my third child. It felt as though I had to decide between work and family, which felt like pressure. At that point in time I didn’t have many examples of female professors with (young) families around me. After speaking with several mentors and great people, I made an informed decision to put myself forward for the professorship, in the hope that by doing so I’d also be able to set a good example.
What advice would you give to current students and young researchers?
Follow your instincts. Ensure that you make solid agreements, both at home and at work. You need to be able to organise things properly for yourself. Working part-time is a great option in academia, but it’s also tricky, as our duties are not clearly defined and they are never-ending. I’ve been fortunate enough to get a lot of understanding at work and academia is largely about teamwork. My family keep me grounded too, which also makes it easier for me to relativise issues at work. Fortunately, I’m seeing change. I’m seeing more and more young PhD students becoming parents. It’s great to see that that’s possible, and I hope that the new appreciation and recognition will help steer people towards using their talents for what they’re good at and what makes them happy.
Is collaboration with researchers from other universities about partnership or competition?
It’s very much a partnership. In the Netherlands, I’ve got good connections with colleagues at the universities in Groningen, Maastricht and Nijmegen. We are frequently drawing up joint applications and there are plenty of projects that we’re collaborating on. Above all, it’s great that we can work together on educating students for a profession that’s more widely supported, thereby combining our strengths.
Getting a grant in the Netherlands used to be tough, so European grants were the alternative. It’s a shame that people are pitted against one another for academic funding.
I definitely don’t perceive there to be any competition in the fields of movement science and health science, although commercial spin offs might, for example by protecting algorithms instead of open science. Most academics are interested in human movement and the optimisation thereof, and so they’re happy to collaborate.
In his introductory speech, Jeroen Geurts, the new rector, stressed the need for the entire research team to receive attention and recognition. What is your experience of teamwork?
I underline that need. I’ve worked in teams for all the applications I’ve submitted. Being revered for personal grants is still received important, but should be a thing of the past. Sparring with one another a lot generates ideas and creativity. I never supervise PhD students alone by myself. That wouldn’t be healthy for them, for me, for science. Time and again, inspiration and ideas come from continuous collaboration. That’s the best thing about my job.
Did the pandemic change the way in which you collaborated with fellow academics?
Holding sessions online during the pandemic did adversely affect creativity, which is a pity. I miss the brainstorming and debates. Online meetings are more matter-of-fact and are now predominantly focused on implementation. It’s through collaborating with other academics that you come up with the next research question.
I’ve travelled to other universities across Europe a lot. Really fun and interesting, albeit laborious too. After 18 months of the coronavirus, it was incredible to be heading nearly monthly to Germany, to Italy, to Norway, to Switzerland with the entire consortium. Meetings were so often held online. Collaborative efforts at European level aren’t always easy to set up. Sometimes they get bogged down in red tape. That said, collaborating with academics from universities in other countries has gotten a fair bit easier now that we’re more used to online exchanges, of course.
Involvement in AMS (Amsterdam Movement Sciences)
I’m involved in research institute AMS (successor of Move) as a board member and programme chair. Together with Carel Meskers and others, I head up the Ageing & Vitality programme, one of the five programmes being run by AMS. This programme entails translational collaboration between researchers of ageing mechanisms and clinical scientists on the interaction between physiological decline and movement behaviour. One significant topic that we’re keen to focus on more is understanding, preventing and treating sarcopenia (loss of muscle strength and function) in ageing and disease.
This year marks ‘50 years of Movement Science’ and you are on the symposium committee. You are also one of the speakers at the symposium on 11 December: Towards ageing with vigour. What can we expect from your presentation? A sneak preview.
I’m going to be talking about how we can encourage people to healthy ageing and I’ll be touching on balance too. We might well be living longer, but we’re lumbered with diseases and conditions from our 50s onwards. As a movement scientist, I’m trying to do my bit towards making people aware early on of their own responsibility when it comes to a healthy lifestyle and movement style. I’ll be offering some examples of the two tracks in my research, on both measurements in the lab and measurements of movement in day-to-day life. I’m more interested in how well people move rather than how much they move. The Dutch health advisory council says ‘the more movement, the better’, but I prefer ‘better movement is best’. After all, it’s also important to avoid getting injured or overdoing it. I’ll be advising on the right things to do and talk about how technology can play a role in that.
At the time of the interview it was not yet clear whether the symposium would be able to go ahead (live) due to the new coronavirus measures. A decision on this will be made later on this week.