Silvere van der Maarel

Silvere van der Maarel is a professor of medical epigenetics at Universiteit Leiden, where he is also chair of the department of human genetics. He studies the role of epigenetic changes in rare diseases, with a particular focus on facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). Silvere is a leading authority on the genomics of FSHD and has also made research contributions to other muscular dystrophies, including oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. He is a co-founder of the Richard Fields Center for FSHD Research, an international collaboration to accelerate research on and treatment of FSHD. In 2016, he received the FSH Society Pioneer Award. Silvere has a Ph.D. in human genetics from the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Genetics in Berlin, Germany.