The Brainclinics research team
The research team
Dr. Martijn Arns
Director & researcher
Martijn Arns is biological-psychologist and entrepreneur with a strong background in applied neuroscience, brain stimulation and medtech. Martijn is founder and director at Brainclinics Foundation and is a visiting scholar at Stanford University (Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab & Psychedelics and Consciousness Lab).
In 2001, Martijn founded Research Institute Brainclinics, which has since become a vital part of the non-profit Brainclinics Foundation. The Brainclinics Foundation’s primary mission is best summarized as: Applied Neuroscience from the clinic, to the clinic and focuses on interventional psychiatry and applied neuroscience where research outcomes should be easily translatable into clinical practice and clinically actionable. Martijn's expertise extends to the development and application of brain stimulation techniques, such as rTMS for depression and OCD, TMS induced Heart-Brain Coupling, Psychedelics as a novel intervention and EEG based precision psychiatry and stratified psychiatry.
Martijn's leadership is evident in his role as a supervisor for various researchers and the publication of over 190 scientific papers and four patents. Throughout his career, he has successfully established several spin-off ventures from Brainclinics. These include Brainquiry (founded in 2002), which introduced the first Bluetooth-based EEG system and a smartwatch, neurocare group (established in 2015), an international innovative mental health clinic, neurocademy (launched in 2015), a training platform for certification in neuromodulation treatments (TMS and neurofeedback), and in 2023 spun-out the Brainmarker platform, an EEG based platform used for treatment stratification. In 2007 he was awarded the FD Gazellen award for fastest growing company.
Martijn's contributions to the scientific community extend beyond his research and spin-offs. He has served as an (associate) editor for various scientific journals and books. Moreover, he has organized numerous international conferences and served on the boards of several (inter)national professional non-profit organizations. As scientific advisor, he has lent his expertise to several medtech and AI start-ups as well as established companies, contributing to advancements and implementation in the field.
Nicole van Merode, MSc
Operations Manager
Nicole graduated in Information Management at the University of Tilburg in 1997. From that time she worked in the IT sector as a project manager and ERP business consultant in several European companies & countries. After 10 years she was ready for something new where people would be much more central and ended up at the Brainclinics Research Institute.
She has been working at Brainclinics in Nijmegen since January 2006 as Operations Manager and is the 'silent' force in the background. In practice she guides the background issues in the right direction so that our researchers can focus as much as possible on their field.