Jan Y. Verbakel

This PhD project explores how non-ischemic cardiomyopathy affects young adults beyond physical symptoms, with a particular focus on psychosocial burden, environmental influences, and the economic consequences of the disease. The candidate will investigate how factors such as stress, obesity, and physical activity relate to disease progression, quality of life, mental well-being, and broader societal impact. The research uses Health Technology Assessment approaches and combines clinical phenotyping with questionnaires, patient-reported outcomes, healthcare use, employment data, and cost information. These data will be integrated with biosamples and multi-omics from a prospective cohort and biobank of more than 1,300 cardiomyopathy patients to better understand disease mechanisms and complications. The position is embedded in the Heart Failure Research team of Prof. dr. Stephane Heymans at CARIM and Maastricht UMC+, within a large Dutch research consortium. The project is also closely connected to the HTA and health economics group at KU Leuven, where the candidate will collaborate with Prof. dr. Jan Y. Verbakel and make regular working visits to Leuven. The student will have room to develop original research ideas, including studies that connect biological findings in the heart, such as RNA or protein data, to psychosocial and environmental factors within a gene-environment interaction framework. Where relevant and feasible, selected findings may also be translated into patient-derived iPSC or experimental animal models in collaboration with molecular researchers. This is a multidisciplinary PhD within an international research environment spanning Maastricht and Leuven, focused on cardiomyopathy, patient-centered outcomes, and health-economic evidence generation.