Hanneke Willemen

Chronic pain is a major and under-recognised global health problem that has historically received limited research attention. This gap motivated Hanneke Willemen to pursue a PhD in neuro-immunology at Utrecht University (the Netherlands), where she investigated the molecular pathways that drive chronic pain. Towards the end of her PhD she identified a previously uncharacterised protein, ATPSc-KMT, which promotes the transition to chronic pain, and later, in the lab of Professor Falnes at Oslo University (Norway), discovered its function as a mitochondrial methyltransferase. Supported by a Veni fellowship from the Dutch Research Council, she investigated how mitochondrial and metabolic alterations shape chronic pain in pre-clinical models, showing that transient peripheral inflammation induces changes in sensory neurons that drive the switch from acute to chronic pain, and that correcting this imbalance reverses pain in mice. With a Vidi fellowship, she is now taking a translational ste