All AMS members and their guests are warmly invited to join the 9^th AMS Annual Research Meeting to be held on Thursday, April 2^nd, 2026.

We are proud to present the keynote speakers:

• Professor dr. Peter Beek, Department of Human Movement Sciences, Faculty of Behavioural and Human Movement Sciences, VU Amsterdam: Varying perspectives on interindividual variability in motor performance and learning.
• Professor dr. Bas Bloem, Radboud UMC, Nijmegen: The importance of exercise for people with Parkinson's disease.

In addition there will be:

• 2 poster sessions;
• 3 thematic breakout sessions, again with outstanding speakers in their fields! See the names of the speakers and their presentations below, you can check out the abstracts here;
• Selected abstract presentations (to be announced);
• Interesting workshops for both junior and senior researchers (detailed workshop information here);
• Award presentations (NOTE: you can still submit your outstanding publication or your project for the impact award, the deadline is March 1, 2026);
• Plentiful networking opportunities;
• A very nice lunch and fun traffic jam drinks!

Next to the keynote speakers, we are proud to present the distinguished speakers from the three breakout sessions:

Breakout session 1:

• Dr. Melissa Hooijmans, Faculty of Behaviour and Movement Sciences, VU Amsterdam: Interleaved 31P-MRS and 1H-MRI to assess mitochondrial and capillary function in the upper arm and leg muscles of young and old individuals;
• Dr. Jaap van Netten, Rehabilitation Medicine, Amsterdam UMC: Moving the goalpost – how research contributes to theparadigm shiftfrom “preventing ulcers” to “(safely) improving activity;

Breakout session 2:

• Dr. Jasper Koning, Molecular Cell Biology and Immunology, Amsterdam UMC: The road towards human immunocompetent, vascularized in vitro skin models;
• Dr. Maarten Steinz, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Amsterdam UMC: Systemically elevated inflammatory cytokine IL-6 in established rheumatoid arthritis affects muscle mitochondrial respiration;

Breakout session 3:

• Dr. Jos de Koning, Faculty of Behaviour and Movement Sciences, VU Amsterdam: Measuring VO2 accurately seems easy, but reality is different;
• Dr. Guus Reurink, Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine, Amsterdam UMC: Acute muscle injuries: from science to clinical practice.

Click here to go through the abstracts of the speakers from the three breakout sessions.

Do you want to read up about the previous AMS annual research meetings? Click on the 'News' links on the right hand side of this webpage, and you willl find the recaps from the succesful and well visited 2025 and 2024 AMS Annual Research Meetings!

Should you have any ideas or suggestions for the organizing committee, please get in touch via ams@vu.nl.

2026 Conference Organizing Committee:

• Hans Tol, Amsterdam UMC, location AMC and AMS;
• Richard Jaspers, FGB, VU Amsterdam and AMS;
• Merel Brehm, Amsterdam UMC, location AMC and AMS;
• Hanneke van Dongen, Faculty of Science, VU Amsterdam and AMS;
• Ibrahim Korkmaz, Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc and AMS;
• Aske Gye Larsen, FGB, VU Amsterdam and AMS;
• Ivo Lutke Schipholt, FGB, VU Amsterdam and AMS;
• Milad Makdismouso, Amsterdam UMC, location AMC and AMS;
• Victoria Milbourn, Amsterdam UMC, location AMC and AMS;
• Maarten Steinz, Amsterdam UMC, location AMC and AMS;
• Ton Schoenmaker, ACTA and AMS;
• Elise van 't Hof, AMS;
• Solveig Lund, AMS.