Cobi J. Heijnen, Ph.D. is the chair of the Symptom Research department. Heijnen joined our faculty as a Professor in 2012. She is one of five Principal Investigators leading the department's Neuroimmunology Laboratories, along with Annemieke Kavelaars, Ph.D.; Robert Dantzer, D.V.M., Ph.D; Andrew J. Shepherd, Ph.D.; and Peter Grace, Ph.D. Prior to joining MD Anderson, Heijnen served as Professor of Neuroimmunology and Chair of the Psychoneuroimmunology department at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands.

Heijnen is one of the founding scientists of the field of psychoneuroimmunology. Her research focuses on cellular and molecular mechanisms of neuronal damage, rodent cognition and motoric behavior and therapeutic targets as neuroprotectants. Her more recent work seeks to understand the mechanisms and treatment of cancer-related stress, pain, fatigue and chemotherapy-induced cognitive deficits. She and her team have demonstrated that nasal application of mesenchymal stem cells repairs brain damage and can reverse existing chemobrain. On the prevention front, she has demonstrated that mitochondrial protectants prevent chemobrain and that pifithrin-µ and metformin can help prevent chemotherapy-induced neuropathy.

Annemieke Kavelaars, Ph.D. has more than 25 years of experience as a researcher in the field of neuroimmunology resulting in a broad background in the field of brain, behavior and immunity. She uses aims at understanding the mechanisms underlying the development of chronic pain. Her studies in this area focus on the role of the immune system in pain resolution. She also investigates novel ways to prevent or treat pain caused by chemotherapy.

Kavelaars joined MD Anderson in 2012, when she and Cobi Heijnen and Robert Dantzer established the Neuroimmunology Laboratories as a new basic science lab within the Department of Symptom Research.