News DCMN

Britt Mossink wins Dutch Neurofederation Thesis Prize 2022

Britt Mossink has won the Dutch Neurofederation Thesis Prize 2022 for his thesis The cell-type specific contribution of EHMT1 to neuronal network dysfunction in Kleefstra syndrome. She received the prize and gave a lecture about her thesis, at the Dutch Neuroscience Meeting, in Tiel.

Midsummer Night Event 2022

Last week, over 250 PhD candidates and postdocs from DCMN, RIHS and RIMLS joined the inspiring and tasty Midsummer Night Event. Check out the pictures to see the impression!

NWO Stevin Prize for expert on Parkinson’s disease Bas Bloem Major scientific prize for societal impact on research into Parkinson's disease

Neurologist Bas Bloem of Radboudumc receives this year’s Stevin Prize of the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The Stevin Award is the highest distinction in science for a researcher in the Netherlands who has achieved particular success in the area of knowledge utilization for society.

The future of laboratory animal research More attention to living conditions of laboratory animals

On May 9, a meeting took place at the Radboudumc as a result of the launch of the Dutch Transparency Agreement on Animal Testing. The Radboudumc is one of the twenty signatories and has thus committed itself to openly and transparently communicate its vision and policy with regard to animal testing.

Reduction in cerebral blood flow related to decline in brain function in people with Alzheimer's disease Brain areas involved in memory and task performance show the largest decline in perfusion

European grants for groundbreaking Radboudumc research Professors Roshan Cools and Peter Friedl receive ERC Advanced Grant

The European Research Council (ERC) is awarding grants to Roshan Cools and Peter Friedl, both professors at Radboudumc. While Cools will investigate how brains control behaviour in (stressful) situations, Friedl will work on developing a new cancer therapy.

Playing games to control emotions How cognitively demanding tasks can affect emotion regulation

Cognitive reappraisal can help us to control our emotions. It involves recognizing negative thought patterns, and gradually changing them to more effective patterns. A new study shows how the cognitive load of reappraisal, rather than the reappraisal itself, affects our emotional processing.

Erno Hermans appointed professor of Cognitive Affective Neuroscience

Hermans unravels the effects of stress on the brain, and uses that knowledge to develop preventive training programs that increase resilience.

Nael Nadif Kasri appointed professor of Medical Neuroscience for Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Kasri creates brain organoids to study brain development, how genetic errors lead to disorders, and what drug or therapy can help. 

Patient must give explicit consent Request for permission to use medical data, leftover human biomaterial and images

Five million euro’s for joint research on rare movement disorders

A Dutch consortium will receive almost 5 million euro’s from NWO to jointly start an ambitious project, called CureQ, on various rare and genetic brain disorders that lead to abnormal movements. Bart van de Warrenburg was one of the main applicants of this ‘Nationale Wetenschaps Agenda (NWA)’ grant.

Donders Citylab launched at the muZIEUm in Nijmegen city centre

The Donders Institute and the muZIEum have launched the CityLab in the Nijmegen city centre. The Citylab aims to bring science and the general public together by combining research, entertainment and education, a schoolbook example of citizen science.

Scientists find that the impact of social media on wellbeing varies across adolescence

Girls and boys might be more vulnerable to the negative effects of social media use at different times during their adolescence, say an international team of scientists in a study published today in Nature Communications.

Promising research on Usher syndrome

Erwin van Wijk, researcher at Hearing and Genes, wants to contribute to making Usher syndrome treatable. The results so far are better than he had dared to hope.

Erno Hermans received NWO Vici grant for research on increasing stress resilience

Erno Hermans, researcher at Radboudumc and Donders Institute, received a Vici grant of 1.5 million euros. With this grant, he will investigate how stress resilience is created and how it can be increased. The findings could contribute to the prevention of stress-related complaints and disorders.

Wanted: PhDs or postdocs to organize ENABLE symposium in Cologne in November 2023

Did you ever consider organising a scientific symposium? Do you want to improve your CV, collaborate with international PhD candidates, or get in touch with biomedical companies? We are now looking for the two representatives of Radboudumc.

Brain connectivity as biomarker for Parkinson's disease

Changes in the dopaminergic system have been implicated in various neurological and psychiatric conditions including Parkinson’s disease. The current study is the first to enable the fMRI-based study of dopamine-specific projections in the human brain, thereby providing improved diagnostics.

Liver tumors irradiated from inside can be followed live from outside

A Dutch research team from Radboud University Medical Center has visualized the injection of radioactive microspheres during treatment of a patient with liver tumors ‘live on screen’.

Arnhem Nijmegen: top region in Health, High-Tech and Energy

Projects in the Arnhem Nijmegen region can expect millions of extra euros in the coming years. This will be used for, amongst other things, the circular economy and pioneering applications in the fields of Health, High-tech and Energy. 

Micro-Cosmos helps patient unwind during hospitalization

Nijmegen-based Micro-Cosmos is a start-up that makes retractable hoods to speed up the recovery of hospitalized patients.

LUMO Labs and Oost NL invest in Aiosyn Investment accelerates development of artificial intelligence platform to improve diagnostics

Aiosyn, a spin-off from Radboudumc, has received an investment from LUMO Labs. Oost NL is a co-investor.

Risk of eye disease calculated for children of parent with Stargardt disease Doctors can now better inform expectant parents about risk of low vision

Development of RNA therapy for rare movement disorder SCA7 Brain Foundation grant for Radboudumc and LUMC

Neurologist Bart van de Warrenburg, together with Willeke van Roon-Mom and Annemieke Aartsma-Rus (both LUMC/Dutch Center for RNA Therapeutics), has been awarded 400,000 euros by the Dutch Brain Foundation to develop a genetic therapy for the rare hereditary movement disorder SCA7.

Big study FINGER-NL aims to improve lifestyle and brain health of the elderly

The big national study FINGER-NL is launched, a two year-long intervention study researching the effect of a combination of lifestyle interventions on the cognitive abilities of elderly people.

Learning Social Dutch organized by RIMLS PhD council

Social Dutch is an initiative of the RIMLS PhD Council, aiming to bring together both Dutch and non-Dutch speaking colleagues. Dates to be announced.

Growth charts for the brain help to understand mental illness

Researchers from Radboud university medical center have developed a set of growth charts for the brain. These ‘brain charts’ provide reference models for brain development and ageing across the entire human lifespan, based on a very large data set.

Aerobe exercise has a positive effect on brain function in Parkinson's disease patients

Radboudumc researchers have shown that the brain function of patients with Parkinson's disease improved with regular exercise, which seems to strengthen the connections between different brain areas, while inhibiting brain shrinkage.

Cause of male infertility already present in DNA before birth

New mutations in DNA, which are not inherited from the father or mother but arise spontaneously before or during fertilization, can cause infertility in men.

Rogier Kievit and Geert Litjens both receive ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros Board of Directors congratulates researchers on top grant

Researchers Rogier Kievit and Geert Litjens were today festively welcomed by the Board of Directors, because of the ERC Starting Grants they both received. With these European top grants, they can each design an ambitious research project and put together their own research group.

Improved AI will boost cancer research and cancer care Geert Litjens receives ERC Starting Grant

Geert Litjens from Radboud university medical center has received a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant.

Understanding fluctuation variation in cognitive abilities may provide insight into lifelong learning Rogier Kievit recieves ERC Starting Grant

Rogier Kievit from Radboud university medical center has received a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant.

Radboud Postdoc Initiative (RPI) Pizza & Beer

On 2 February 2022 from 17:00 - 18:00 hrs the Radboud Postdoc Initiative will host an online meeting for Postdocs (and last year PhD candidates) with the theme ‘PhD to Start Up'. The meeting will be lead by Sruthi Sreekumar.

Radboudumc receives 2.6 million Euro from KWF for cancer research

The Dutch Cancer Society (KWF) is awarding funds with a total of more than 2.6 million euros to five new research projects. The awards are part of the latest round of funding from KWF, in which almost 27 million euros is being allocated to Dutch cancer research. The projects will start in mid-2022.

Veni for 8 researchers Radboudumc and Radboud University

NWO has awarded 89 promising young scientists Veni funding of up to 280,000 euros. Eight of them are from Radboudumc and Radboud University. They can develop their own research ideas over a period of three years.

Early-life stress affects the impact of acute stress on the brain

For Women in Science Rising Talent Prizes 2022 Open for applications

L’Oréal Netherlands, the Netherlands Commission for Unesco and the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW) have joined hands to offer national prizes to young female researchers as part of the Netherlands L’Oréal-Unesco For Women in Science program. Deadline 20 January 2022.

KNAW Early Career Award for Martine Hoogman

Martine Hoogman has been awarded a KNAW Early Career Award. The prize, a sum of 15,000 euros and a work of art, is aimed at researchers in the Netherlands who are at the start of their careers and have innovative, original research ideas.

T-Guard can reset immune system

For 20 years, the Nijmegen based Radboudumc spin-off company Xenikos has been working on a drug that can reset the immune system. This reset will save lives of seriously ill patients. Now, after years of hard work, the moment of truth has arrived for T-guard.

Dutch-Nordic Alliance for Precision Cancer Medicine launched

The Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland) are together setting up national clinical precision cancer trials modelled on the very successful DRUP trial in the Netherlands.

The effects of dopamine levels on reward responsivity

To adapt to the ever-changing context in which we live, we are constantly deciding how much effort to put into performing our behavior, or how fast to perform our actions. How do people decide how fast to act and how does the brain compute this? Our researchers set out to investigate this.

Milk fat to attenuate obesity-related neurological co-morbidities

The use of lipids to attenuate co-morbidities of obesity may sound paradoxical. However, it has shown to be particularly relevant in the fight against a less familiar co-morbidity of obesity, as it can induce alterations in white matter tracks, neuroinflammation and increases the risk of dementia.

Adverse effects of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in bipolar disorder

Mindfulness is often described as “being aware of our present moment experience, in a friendly and non-judgmental way”. As research into mindfulness, and psychotherapy in general, has mainly been focused on positive outcomes, not much is known about the possibility of adverse effects.

Twenty Radboud scientists on the list Highly Cited Researchers

AI for Health course open for applications

Have you ever thought about exploring and understanding the field of artificial intelligence? Due to the successes in past years, another AI for Health course will be held in 2022. The deadline for application is 17 December 2021, so make sure to reserve a spot!

Dutch institutions sign agreement about their research using animals

Radboudumc, Radboud University and 13 other organisations involved in animal testing in the Netherlands have signed the Dutch Transparency Agreement on Animal Testing. The institutes commit themselves to communicate in a more open way about how animals are used in research.

New genetic defect links cell biology and protein glycosylation

Peter Linders, Dirk Lefeber and Geert van den Bogaart together with international colleagues have recently reported on novel cell biological insights, by identifying a genetic disorder in syntaxin-5 which allowed to unravel a new mechanism regulating intracellular transportation.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health of Parkinson's patients

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced challenges to the social life and care of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD), which could potentially worsen mental health problems. A new study investigated this associaten and explored whether mental health and quality of life can be improved.

The Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Brain and Cognitive Function

Intermittent Fasting is a type of diet in which one refrains from eating for periods of time. It is known that it has positive effects on metabolic health, but what is the effect of this diet on brain and cognition? Radboudumc researchers reviewed experimental evidence on this topic.

Regional hospitals invest in joint research Four new projects in promotion fund

Four more research projects have been granted in the promotion fund of the Radboudumc and the regional hospitals.

Early stage biomarker for Alzheimer's disease

Researchers from the translational metabolic lab and department of neurology, in collaboration with researchers from University of Barcelona, set out to research a new biomarker in cerebrospinal fluid called “neuroleukin” for Alzheimer's disease.