Annemie Schols studied human nutrition at the Agricultural University of Wageningen. She graduated in 1985, having specialized in clinical nutrition and statistics. From 1985 until 1987 she worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, on a grant from the Canadian Government. In 1991 she received her PhD at Maastricht University on the basis of a thesis entitled: 'Nutritional depletion in relation to physical impairment in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease'. In 2004 she was appointed as Professor of Nutrition and Metabolism in Chronic Diseases, for which she was inaugurated in 2005 with her lecture "In beweging door verbinding". Annemie Schols is scientific director of  NUTRIM School for Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism in which most of the research of the Department of Respiratory Medicine is embedded and director of MINT institute for Post-Graduate Education. The research line of her team (dr. Harry Gosker, dr. Ramon Langen) comprises fundamental and clinical research into the metabolic aberrations and molecular mechanisms of the cachexia syndrome in chronic disease with specific interest in skeletal muscle abnormalities and COPD as disease model. Furthermore, innovative physiologic and pharmacological strategies are studied to improve functional performance and health status in COPD.