Nicole Juffermans’ work is focused on improving the condition of ICU patients and the efficacy of medical interventions. In her capacity as principal investigator at the Academic Medical Center, she heads a research line that investigates the efficacy of blood transfusions and associated blood clotting, anaemia, infections and inflammation. This research is being conducted within a European framework and in partnership with various departments at the AMC and Sanquin Blood Supply. In addition, Juffermans focuses on regulating hyperinflammation during episodes of critical illness by slowing the metabolism in a controlled manner. This research project is also taking place within a European framework and involves various disciplines. Besides her research work, Juffermans is involved in the department’s education programme and provides education and training to trainee specialists, emergency physicians and ICU nursing staff.   

As professor, Juffermans will focus on the prevention of organ failure through the optimisation of ICU models. ICU patients form an extremely diverse group and as a rule generally suffer from more than one condition. Together, these factors make it necessary to devise models with which to investigate the success or failure of an intervention. Her goal is to set up a European network of laboratories which are active in ICU research, with the aim to facilitate exchange of PhD students and optimise the use of available skills and models.

Juffermans works as an internist and intensivist at the AMC. Besides being a clinician at the ICU department, she is also principal researcher at the AMC’s Laboratory of Experimental Intensive Care Medicine and Anesthesiology (LEICA) and staff member of the department of Intensive Care Medicine. Juffermans has published widely in scientific journals, is chief editor of The Netherlands Journal of Critical Care and editor of the handbook Transfusion in the Intensive Care Unit.