Brand earned her Ph.D. in 1978 from the Leiden Academic Hospital under Professors Jon van Rood[1] and George Eernisse, on the topic of ‘Platelet Supportive Care’.
[2] Brand studied the management of platelet refractoriness[3] and the role of leukocytes[4][5] in erythrocyte alloimmunization[6][7][8] and transfusion outcomes.
[9][10] She studied the optimal conditions for the storage and expansion of cord blood[11] for transplantation, along with platelets[12] and red cells[13][14] for transfusion.
Brand developed peri-operative blood management strategies[15][16] and co-directed clinical platelet transfusion trials.
[24][25] She was the senior author on the MATCH study, which looked at whether red cell units should be matched only for ABO and RhD, or for additional erythrocyte antigens such as c, C, E, K, Fy(a), Jk(a), and S.[26] Brand co-authored over 350 papers, helped found the Dutch Cord Blood Bank,[2] served on the board of the European Hematology Association from 2011 to 2015,[27] and helped develop educational programs for training physicians and laboratory technologists.