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During the Goodbye and Hello event on 11 January, the last RIMLS Award ceremony took place. After a warm welcome by RIMLS scientific director René Bindels, we honored the best achievements with prestigious awards in the various categories.
We owe a lot of thanks to all jury members. Otto Boerman led the jury for the Master thesis, PhD thesis and publication award. Marieke Willemse was chair of the jury of the image award. The PhD council was in charge of the supervisor of the year. The RIMLS MT has selected the winner of the RIMLS award.
After these very last RIMLS Awards, we say goodbye to scientific director René Bindels. We thank him for his endless efforts to improve the support and the communication about the institute.
Next year, the new Radboudumc Research Institute for Medical Innovation will organize a brand new Award event.
The RIMLS award winners are:
RIMLS Master Thesis 2022
Rohit Rajesh Gokhale: Galectin-9: A New Paradigm in Dendritic Cell Migration. Unravelling Galectin-9 Function in Dendritic Cell Migration in Anti-Melanoma Immunity
Jury comments: The jury was impressed by the wide variety of techniques employed: isolation of primary cells, flow cytometry, live imaging and advanced confocal microscopy, Western blotting, etc). The winner showed great eagerness for experimental design and carried out follow-up experiments. A new mechanism for cell migration was unraveled. Lastly, this master thesis stands out because of the excellent figures and layout.
RIMLS PhD Thesis of 2022
Rebecca Halbach: Beyond transposon control – piRNAs in gene regulation and embryonic development.
Jury comments: Six nominated theses, of outstanding quality (five of which were graduated cum laude), again a new record. Thus, picking a winner was extremely difficult, if not impossible, but the jury made a tough selection: In the winning thesis, new functions of small regulatory RNAs in embryonic development were discovered. Furthermore, the PhD candidate not only excelled in the performed molecular biology studies, but also developed excellent bioinformatic skills during the outlined studies.
RIMLS Breakthrough Publication of 2022
Rens Peeters et al.: Fatty acid metabolism in aggressive B-cell lymphoma is inhibited by tetraspanin CD37. Nat. Commun. 2022 Sep 13;13(1):5371
Jury comments: Four papers were nominated out of the more then 1300 RIMLS papers published last year. Thus, the nomination by itself is already a great honor. Four papers were nominated out of the more then 1300 RIMLS papers published last year. Thus, the nomination by itself is already a great honor. In the winning paper a new molecular mechanism was identified in line with the RIMLS slogan “Todays molecules for tomorrow’s medicine” and published in an excellent journal. This new mechanism was supported by both in vitro and in vivo data, and could provide a rationale to design new therapeutic approaches for B cell lymphomas and other malignancies.
Best RIMLS Image award 2022
Judith Schaart: Shedding light on bone development
Jury comments: A record number of 10 beautiful images were nominated. And it was a very (very very) nice collection of images to choose from this year. There were a couple of possible winners, but only one can win the best image award. The winning image is taken on a confocal microscope, and has several nice stains. In the image processing, nice color combinations where selected. It tickled the minds of the jury members. They saw all kind of things in the image. One member recognized two heads with friendly eyes like ET, another member identified a structure that was ripped apart by stretching it from both sides. And although the science behind the picture is not taken along in the end result, it was quite impressive that this object was kept alive for more than 3 months.
The image also appeared in the Dutch newspaper 'The Gelderlander' on 23 January 2023: ‘Hondenbot’ van menselijke cellen: Radboudumc kweekt mini-botje voor onderzoek | Nijmegen | gelderlander.nl
Supervisor of the Year
The supervisor of the year award was organized by the RIMLS PhD Council.
Ellen van den Bogaard, Jorge Domínguez-Andrés and Sandra Heskamp were the three nominated supervisors. All RIMLS PhD candidates were invited to vote for these nominees. After an exciting neck-and-neck race, two supervisors both received so many votes that it was decided to name two supervisors of the year.
Ellen van den Bogaard and Sandra Heskamp were elected as Supervisor of the Year 2022!
Annual RIMLS Award 2022
LEM (Laboratoriumondersteuning En Mediabereiding )
The LEM received the RIMLS award for their long-lasting and dedicated commitment to the RIMLS. This team continuously and enthusiastically supports the work of others. Initially only the workers in the Research Tower, but more recently they expanded their work area and also support the labwork within the whole Radboudumc. They start extremely early in the morning so that everybody can have a smooth beginning of their working day. We greatly appreciate their work and support.
Some collector items were displayed so that everyone could take any NCMLS/RIMLS merchandise of interest.
This was the last RIMLS event and we would like to thank the RIMLS team for their dedication and support and welcome you all at the new Radboudumc Research Institute for Medical Innovation.
To view all photos of the RIMLS Awards session, click here. 
