Willem Bruin is a postdoctoral researcher in precision psychiatry. He studies how brain development relates to mental health problems in young people, with a focus on anxiety disorders. Using large-scale neuroimaging and machine learning, he develops models to better understand and predict individual differences in brain development and psychiatric symptoms.

More information about Willem Bruin

Research

Dr. Willem Bruin is a postdoctoral researcher in precision psychiatry. He studies how brain development relates to mental health problems in young people, with a focus on anxiety disorders. Using large-scale neuroimaging and machine learning, he develops models to better understand and predict individual differences in brain development and psychiatric symptoms.

Dr. Willem Bruin’s research focuses on how individual differences in brain development relate to mental health problems in young people. At Leiden University, he works with Dr. Moji Aghajani on brain development and anxiety disorders in young people, using large-scale neuroimaging data and machine learning. A central aim is to understand why some young people develop mental health problems while others do not, and to what extent differences in brain development can help characterise individual risk and developmental trajectories.

Much of this research is conducted within the international ENIGMA consortium, which brings together neuroimaging data from research centres around the world. Within these collaborations, Dr. Bruin develops and evaluates predictive models and methods that go beyond group differences and aim to capture variation between individuals.

Short CV

Willem Bruin studied Psychobiology at the University of Amsterdam and went on to complete a Research Master's in Biomedical Sciences, specialising in psychopharmacology and pathophysiology, with a minor in Programming.

He was awarded his PhD in 2024 at the Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC, supervised by Prof. dr G.A. van Wingen and Prof. dr Damiaan Denys. His doctoral research examined whether machine learning applied to brain scans could produce usable biomarkers for psychiatric diagnosis and treatment selection, including work on obsessive-compulsive disorder and the development of a biomarker for predicting response to electroconvulsive therapy in depression.

From 2021 to 2022 he held a postdoctoral position at Amsterdam UMC, where he first began working with Dr Moji Aghajani on brain morphology and transdiagnostic classification in juvenile anxiety disorders.

Since January 2023 he has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Education and Child Studies, Leiden University, within the Forensic Family and Youth Care programme, where he continues this collaboration with Dr Moji Aghajani on brain development and anxiety in young people.

Since September 2025 he additionally holds a separate postdoctoral position at Amsterdam UMC, in the Neuropsychiatry team, where he works with Prof. dr Odile van den Heuvel on brain development and obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

Grants

KNAW Ter Meulen Grant (2026) - The Heterogeneous Brain in Youth Psychiatry: A Normative Modeling Perspective
ZonMw Neuropsychoanalyse Fonds (2026, co-applicant & co-investigator) - Esketamine-induced psychoanalytic processes and neurophysiological brain dynamics
Academy van Leersum Grant (2024) - Pathways to precision psychiatry: big data analytics for juvenile mood disorders
KNAW Van der Gaag Grant (2023) - Research on juvenile mood disorders
Selected Early Career Scientist (2019) - ECNP Workshop on Neuropsychopharmacology, Nice
SOBP Travel Grant (2019) - Society of Biological Psychiatry Annual Meeting, Chicago

Ancillary activities

Willem Bruin also holds a postdoctoral position at Amsterdam UMC, Department of Psychiatry. He participates in international research consortia, including the ENIGMA-OCD and ENIGMA-ANXIETY working groups, and serves as a peer reviewer for journals in psychiatry and neuroimaging.

Publications