Ben Janssen

Associate professor

Dr Ben Janssen graduated with the specialisation physiology and endocrinology at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Nijmegen (1983). He received his PhD with a thesis on ‘sensory renal nerves and hypertension’ at the Department of Pharmacology of Maastricht University (1988). Since then, he has been full member of the staff of the Department of Pharmacology and was appointed associate professor and teaching coordinator Pharmacology at the medical faculty in 2004. He enjoyed several cardiovascular research trainings in institutes across the USA and has worked for one year (1995) at Baker Medical Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia in the laboratory of Prof. Head (autonomic pharmacology).

His main research line focusses on integrative pharmacological control of autonomic function in cardiovascular disease. He has considerable experience in translating pharmacological research in vitro to hypothesis testing in vivo experimental animals and has specialised in baroreflex control of the circulation as well as circadian rhythms.

His current research area is related to the role of the kidney in the (perinatal) development of hypertension. He is sponsored by the Dutch Kidney Foundation on a project on the role of hypoxia in the development of chronic kidney disease. In these studies he makes use of state of the art in vivo telemetric recordings of tissue oxygen.