Prof Anna Jansen

Anna Jansen is Professor of Child Neurology at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the University of Antwerp (UA). She is head of the Pediatric Neurology Unit and Coordinator of the Tuberous Sclerosis Team at Antwerp University Hospital. She trained in Medicine at the University of Antwerp and completed her training in neurology at UZ Brussel. She then moved to Montreal for a Neurogenetics Fellowship at the Montreal Neurological Hospital and Institute. After her return to Brussels, she obtained her PhD in medical sciences and completed her training in Child Neurology.

Her clinical research focusses on TSC and TSC-associated neuropsychiatric disorders (TAND). She has participated in several clinical trials for treatment in TSC. She was co-investigator in the EPISTOP trial (FP7/2007-2013 GA 602391), was Vice-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the TuberOus SClerosis registry to increase disease Awareness (TOSCA), and coordinated the TOSCA research projects on subependymal giant cell astrocytoma (SEGA) and quality of life. She was part of the TSC-associated neuropsychiatric disorders (TAND) committee of the 2012 and 2018 International TSC Consensus Conference and has contributed to the development of the TAND checklist which she continues to promote. She facilitated a Multi-stakeholder Dialogue for Priority Setting in TSC Research, in close collaboration with Be-TSC, the Belgian patient organisation for TSC, and the King Baudoin Foundation. In follow-up of this project, she now leads the TANDem project together with Prof. Petrus de Vries.

Prof Jansen also coordinates the research program on developmental brain malformations at VUB and UA, which focuses on the identification and characterisation of novel genes involved in brain development. Her work is supported by a Senior Clinical Investigator Fellowship from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). She was the Vice-Chair of the COST Action 16118 Neuro-MIG, which brought together clinicians, basic scientists and patient representatives to stimulate interdisciplinary research in the field of brain development.


Prof Jansen is the honorary secretary of the Society for the Study of Behavioural Phenotypes (SSBP), an international, interdisciplinary research organization, and is a board member of the European Pediatric Neurology Society (EPNS). At national level, she is board member of the Belgian Pediatric Neurology Society and is scientific advisor for be-TSC (Belgian TSC family organisation). In 2016 she was received the John Stobo Prichard Award from the International Child Neurology Association for her contributions to child neurology.