Liesbeth Reneman’s research activities centre around the effect of drugs and medicines on the brain, with a special emphasis on the long-term effects of medication on the developing brain. Her research group uses multidisciplinary and translational approaches to study the effects of drugs and medicines such as ecstasy, amphetamines, chemotherapy, methylphenidate and antidepressants. In addition to highlighting the benefits of psychiatric medications, her work also sheds light on some of their lesser known effects on the developing brain. Reneman is also involved in the diagnosis of patients at the Radiology department and the implementation of research results within the clinical neuroradiology practice.

In addition to her clinical tasks and teaching duties, Reneman will be working to further develop non-invasive molecular imaging and strengthen the ties between fundamental research and clinical practice as a part of her professorship. As a part of these responsibilities, she will also be working to support molecular MRI imaging activities within the neuroradiology department. Molecular imaging is the characterisation, visualisation and quantification of molecular mechanisms that may cause disease before they manifest themselves in the form of structural deviations. The technology will inevitably come to play a key role in the early diagnosis of neuropsychiatric syndromes, the stratification of patients and personalised medicine. 

Reneman has worked as a neuroradiologist at the AMC-UvA’s Radiology department since 2008. She serves as principal investigator and leader of the Translational Neuroradiology research group. Reneman is initiator and co-founder of the Brain Imaging Center (BIC), the expertise centre responsible for bundling all neuroimaging expertise within the AMC-UvA’s Psychiatry, Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Neurology departments. She also serves as leader of the AMC-UvA’s Brain Imaging programme within the Neuroscience Amsterdam alliance between AMC-UvA and VUmc, and she is affiliated with the UvA’s interdisciplinary Amsterdam Brain and Cognition Centre (ABC). In 2014, Reneman established the European Pharma Network, a multidisciplinary network supporting European researchers in the process of sharing knowledge and jointly developing standards and guidelines for the use of pharmacological MRI in the healthcare sector.