Currently, Boyd Kenkhuis is an MD/PhD-candidate in the groups of dr. Willeke van Roon-Mom and dr. Louise van der Weerd. After obtaining his bachelor of Medicine, he enrolled in a combined MD/PhD degree program at the LUMC, aiming to become both a physician and scientist. His work focusses on the interaction between iron dyshomeostasis and the brain’s immune system in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington’s disease. For the first part of his project he combined MRI and human histopathology to assess iron-accumulation in different regions and cell types of the brain. For the second part of his project he was awarded an Alzheimer NL-UK knowledge exchange fellowship and a Eurolife early career scholarship to spend 6 months at the University of Edinburgh in the group of prof. Priller to help develop a protocol to differentiate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into microglia (the brain’s resident immune cell). He is now applying this technique to try and understand how iron affects microglial cell function and how this contributes to disease progression.