For over 35 years, Van Broeckhoven has been active in the field of neurodegenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lewy body disorders and Parkinson's disease. She has more than 450 scientific publications to her name and is the author of ‘Brein & branie: a pioneer in Alzheimer’. She is also an associate editor of the scientific journal Genes, Brain and Behavior.
Her areas of expertise include neurogenetics with a focus on early-onset and familial brain diseases and translational research including bio sampling, biobanking and databanking, as well as DNA screening and clinical-pathological characterization of mutation carriers. She also leads the Department of Molecular Genetics at the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB). For almost 20 years, she was a board member of GIMV, a Belgian European investment company with experience in private equity and venture capital.