Luc Heerkens

Luc Heerkens, MSc, is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Nutrition and Disease at Wageningen University & Research. His research focuses on the interplay between nutrition, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic disorders, with a particular emphasis on liver and kidney health in post-myocardial infarction patients.

He obtained his PhD from Wageningen University in 2025 with a dissertation titled "Liver and kidney health in cardiovascular patients: Epidemiological studies on biological pathways and the role of nutrition".

His primary research interests include:

• Cardiovascular Disease epidemiology
• Nutritional interventions for heart disease
• Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and its cardiovascular implications
• Genetic and dietary determinants of kidney function
• Genetic risk profiling in chronic diseases
• Epidemiological methods in nutritional science

His recent publications (2024-2025) demonstrate a strong focus on the relationships between body composition, diet quality, and long-term outcomes in coronary patients. Key themes include the impact of non-alcoholic fatty liver on cardiovascular events, the role of diet in kidney function preservation, and the modification of mortality risk by lifestyle factors.

Dr. Heerkens was involved in the project "Personalized nutrition for cardiovascular patients on the basis of genomic and metabolic profiling" (2020-2025) as a PhD candidate, supervised by Prof. Geleijnse and Dr. van Duijnhoven. This project investigated the cardiovascular system, nutrition, and related metabolic pathways.

He collaborates extensively with researchers at Wageningen University and other institutions, as evidenced by co-authorship on multiple studies involving large cohorts of cardiovascular patients.