Dr Lucy Rutten is a senior scientist within the research group Lifestyle Brain Interaction at the Cognitive Psychology department. In her work she combines a strong biomedical background with a broad interest in disease prevention, in particular, cognitive degeneration and Alzheimer’s disease.

More information about Lucy Rutten

Dr Lucy Rutten is a senior scientist within the research group Lifestyle Brain Interaction at the Cognitive Psychology department. In her work she combines a strong biomedical background with a broad interest in disease prevention, in particular, cognitive degeneration and Alzheimer’s disease.

After finishing Biomedical Sciences at Leiden University, Dr Lucy Rutten obtained her PhD in Utrecht. In her early career she focused on prevention through vaccine development against bacterial and viral infections. Her contribution to the design and characterisation of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine at Johnson & Johnson is a key highlight.

In addition, she has also worked as leader for a research group at Crossbeta Biosciences, focusing on both vaccines and antibodies against amyloid-beta. This approach reflected the dominant hypothesis at that time, namely, that a targeted approach to amyloid could be the key to prevention and treatment.

Parallel to these developments, there was the increased insight that cognitive degeneration and neurodegeneration are strongly connected to metabolic processes and lifestyle factors. This shift in scientific understanding marked a natural tipping point in her research interest. Her focus shifted towards metabolic health, nutrition and other modifiable biological processes connected to changes in cognition.

Lifestyle Brain Interaction is where this expertise unites. Within this group her work operates at the intersection of cognitive psychology and biomedical sciences, with special attention for interaction between lifestyle, brain and behaviour.