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1 June 2018
Radboud university medical center
A microchip-based toolbox to treat osteoporosis
Alireza Dolatshahi-Pirouz, Radboud university medical center
Due to the aging population new innovations are needed for dealing with osteoporosis the most common disability among today’s elderly. Regenerative medicine can address this challenge through hydrogel- based stem cell therapies. The goal is to develop a toolbox for testing thousands of such therapies in a single experiment.
Paradoxical Sleep
Martin Dresler, Radboud university medical center, Cognitive Neuroscience
REM sleep is a paradoxical state: we are sound asleep, but our brains are highly active; we experience a vivid simulation of reality, however memory and thinking skills are strongly restricted. The researchers aim to elucidate the neurobiology of REM sleep, and explain the brain basis of typical dream experiences.
Tackling the disordered brain in rare genetic syndromes
Tjitske Kleefstra, Radboud university medical center, Genetics
The diagnostic possibilities for rare genetic syndromes have increased tremendously. The next challenge is to understand the natural course of disease and to create tailored interventions. In this project a longitudinal follow up and intervention study will be implemented to improve care of patients with intellectual disability and significant psychopathology.
Treatment of high blood pressure to prevent dementia.
Edo Richard, Radboud university medical center, Neurology
Dr. Richard will investigate why high blood pressure increases the risk of dementia and how personalized treatment of hypertension can prevent dementia. He will study information of thousands of people from around the world who were followed for decades and will study their brains after death.
Why do healthy people die of the flu?
Frank van de Veerdonk, Radboud university medical center, Internal Medicine
A pandemic is inevitable and will cost millions of lives including many healthy adults. Deadly complications of the flu are fungal infection or a life-threatening inflammatory response. This research will identify why these complications happen and can lead to treatment that can save lives during a severe flu season.
Radboud University
Combining words during speaking and listening
Andrea Martin Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging
Human language allows us to combine words into infinitely many possible meanings, yet current theories of language production and comprehension do not specify a mechanism for how our brains compute meanings and structures when we speak and listen. This proposal develops a computational model for combinatorial processes during speaking and listening that operates in a brain-like fashion, and tests this model with neuromagnetic techniques.
How the brain processes complex sounds
Bernhard Englitz, Donders Centre for Neuroscience
Hearing is an important sense for humans. In this project, researchers will analyse which parts of the brain respond to natural sounds and how different types of neurons respond to them in the auditory brain. The results will allow them to understand how humans hear in a world of complicated sounds.
Sleep on it!
Lisa Genzel, Donders Centre for Neuroscience
We only retain a small portion of our experiences in long-term memory and sleep will determine which ones by replaying recent, novel events. Here, the researchers focus on the communication
between two key memory areas during sleep, the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, to investigate how sleep selects and strengthens memories.
https://www.radboudumc.nl/en/people/lisa-genzel
How to read the genome
Dr. S.J. (Simon) van Heeringen, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences
A fertilized egg cell develops into a complete organism with many different cell types. How is this encoded in the genome? Biologists will compare the development of different animals. Using ‘big data’ they will train computer algorithms to understand cellular decisions. This knowledge will be essential for regenerative medicine
Novel players in the nitrogen cycle
Sebastian Lücker, Institute for Water and Wetland Research
Human activities have a major negative impact on the global nitrogen budget, causing eutrophication (oversupply of nutrients which leads to overgrowth of plants and algae), biodiversity loss and public health issues. Still, some of the key bacteria involved in nitrogen removal are poorly understood. Sebastian Lücker will study novel nitrogen cycle bacteria and use them to optimize wastewater treatment.
Brain rhythms: the building blocks of the brain
Saskia Haegens, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
Every day, our brains receive an enormous amount of information, which needs to be filtered and processed. To accomplish this, it is crucial to connect the right brain areas at the right moment. The researchers will study how brain rhythms organize this.
Living on the Other Side: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Migration and Family Law in Morocco
Nadia Sonneveld, Research Centre for State and Law
European leaders negotiate migration agreements with North African governments. Yet, what are migrants’ legal rights in these countries and how do receiving states and migrants deal with them in practice? Living on the Other Side provides answers through a legal-anthropological analysis of migrants’ family life affairs in Morocco.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nadia_Sonneveld
Next-generation cryptography
Peter Schwabe, Institute for Computing and Information Sciences
Physicists are working hard to build so-called ‘‘quantum computers’’, which will be incredibly useful for many applications. Unfortunately, they will also be able to break encryption that is used to protect, for example, Internet communication. This project will transition cryptography to the next generation, secure against attacks by quantum computers.
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Elementary particles of conversation
Mark Dingemanse, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Just below our awareness, small words like ‘mm’, ‘huh?’ and ‘oh’ streamline our conversations and make complex language possible. Yet we don’t know where they come from, how they get their shape, and whether they are universal. We use recordings of conversation and computer models to study the elementary particles of conversation.
Fourteen researchers from Nijmegen – eight from Radboud University, five from Radboud university medical center and one from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics – are each to receive up to 800,000 euros to develop an innovative research theme and to build up their own research group.
Radboud university medical center
A microchip-based toolbox to treat osteoporosis
Alireza Dolatshahi-Pirouz, Radboud university medical center
Due to the aging population new innovations are needed for dealing with osteoporosis the most common disability among today’s elderly. Regenerative medicine can address this challenge through hydrogel- based stem cell therapies. The goal is to develop a toolbox for testing thousands of such therapies in a single experiment.
Paradoxical Sleep
Martin Dresler, Radboud university medical center, Cognitive Neuroscience
REM sleep is a paradoxical state: we are sound asleep, but our brains are highly active; we experience a vivid simulation of reality, however memory and thinking skills are strongly restricted. The researchers aim to elucidate the neurobiology of REM sleep, and explain the brain basis of typical dream experiences.
Tackling the disordered brain in rare genetic syndromes
Tjitske Kleefstra, Radboud university medical center, Genetics
The diagnostic possibilities for rare genetic syndromes have increased tremendously. The next challenge is to understand the natural course of disease and to create tailored interventions. In this project a longitudinal follow up and intervention study will be implemented to improve care of patients with intellectual disability and significant psychopathology.
Treatment of high blood pressure to prevent dementia.
Edo Richard, Radboud university medical center, Neurology
Dr. Richard will investigate why high blood pressure increases the risk of dementia and how personalized treatment of hypertension can prevent dementia. He will study information of thousands of people from around the world who were followed for decades and will study their brains after death.
Why do healthy people die of the flu?
Frank van de Veerdonk, Radboud university medical center, Internal Medicine
A pandemic is inevitable and will cost millions of lives including many healthy adults. Deadly complications of the flu are fungal infection or a life-threatening inflammatory response. This research will identify why these complications happen and can lead to treatment that can save lives during a severe flu season.
Radboud University
Combining words during speaking and listening
Andrea Martin Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging
Human language allows us to combine words into infinitely many possible meanings, yet current theories of language production and comprehension do not specify a mechanism for how our brains compute meanings and structures when we speak and listen. This proposal develops a computational model for combinatorial processes during speaking and listening that operates in a brain-like fashion, and tests this model with neuromagnetic techniques.
How the brain processes complex sounds
Bernhard Englitz, Donders Centre for Neuroscience
Hearing is an important sense for humans. In this project, researchers will analyse which parts of the brain respond to natural sounds and how different types of neurons respond to them in the auditory brain. The results will allow them to understand how humans hear in a world of complicated sounds.
Sleep on it!
Lisa Genzel, Donders Centre for Neuroscience
We only retain a small portion of our experiences in long-term memory and sleep will determine which ones by replaying recent, novel events. Here, the researchers focus on the communication
between two key memory areas during sleep, the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, to investigate how sleep selects and strengthens memories.
https://www.radboudumc.nl/en/people/lisa-genzel
How to read the genome
Dr. S.J. (Simon) van Heeringen, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences
A fertilized egg cell develops into a complete organism with many different cell types. How is this encoded in the genome? Biologists will compare the development of different animals. Using ‘big data’ they will train computer algorithms to understand cellular decisions. This knowledge will be essential for regenerative medicine
Novel players in the nitrogen cycle
Sebastian Lücker, Institute for Water and Wetland Research
Human activities have a major negative impact on the global nitrogen budget, causing eutrophication (oversupply of nutrients which leads to overgrowth of plants and algae), biodiversity loss and public health issues. Still, some of the key bacteria involved in nitrogen removal are poorly understood. Sebastian Lücker will study novel nitrogen cycle bacteria and use them to optimize wastewater treatment.
Brain rhythms: the building blocks of the brain
Saskia Haegens, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
Every day, our brains receive an enormous amount of information, which needs to be filtered and processed. To accomplish this, it is crucial to connect the right brain areas at the right moment. The researchers will study how brain rhythms organize this.
Living on the Other Side: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Migration and Family Law in Morocco
Nadia Sonneveld, Research Centre for State and Law
European leaders negotiate migration agreements with North African governments. Yet, what are migrants’ legal rights in these countries and how do receiving states and migrants deal with them in practice? Living on the Other Side provides answers through a legal-anthropological analysis of migrants’ family life affairs in Morocco.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nadia_Sonneveld
Next-generation cryptography
Peter Schwabe, Institute for Computing and Information Sciences
Physicists are working hard to build so-called ‘‘quantum computers’’, which will be incredibly useful for many applications. Unfortunately, they will also be able to break encryption that is used to protect, for example, Internet communication. This project will transition cryptography to the next generation, secure against attacks by quantum computers.
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Elementary particles of conversation
Mark Dingemanse, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Just below our awareness, small words like ‘mm’, ‘huh?’ and ‘oh’ streamline our conversations and make complex language possible. Yet we don’t know where they come from, how they get their shape, and whether they are universal. We use recordings of conversation and computer models to study the elementary particles of conversation.
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