Awards

Otto Boerman winner of RIMLS award

The RIMLS award is an annual prize for people who have contributed a lot to the RIMLS institute. Since 2017 Otto Boerman is the Director of the Radboud Animal Research Facility and transformed this facility into a financial healthy institute. More importantly customer and staff satisfaction has increased enormously, giving the Radboud Technology Center (RTC) a new future. In addition as chair of the RTC board he further improved the organization of the RTC's. We are proud to have Otto Boerman as our colleague.

Best Image Award for Daan ‘t Hart and Valentina Palacio-Casteneda

This picture was taken while investigating the growth of podocytes in a kidney-on-a-chip system. This project emerged as a collaboration between the Department of Nephrology and the Department of Biochemistry, when they decided to join forces combining their knowledge in kidney physiology and in organ-on-chips technologies, respectively, to develop a kidney-on-a-chip system. As part of the validation process of the system, different cell densities of podocytes were loaded in the chips and grown for two weeks in the microfluidic kidney-on-a-chip. After this, the cells were fixed and different stainings were applied: Phalloidin to stain the actin cytoskeleton (red), Hoechst for the nuclei (blue), and a podocytes differentiation marker (green) called synaptopodin which is associated with the actin cytoskeleton at the sites of the foot processes of the podocytes. The chips were then imaged in the Zeiss LSM900 microscope from the MIC at the 6th floor of the RIMLS, using the 10X long distance objective and the tile scan tool to image the entire chip. Curiously, we observed that as a result of an overcrowded environment (500.000 cells/ml) the podocytes showed two distinct differentiation phenotypes: one more physiologically relevant with large square-like cell bodies and characteristic actin stress fibers on the right of the chip, and another one with a fibroblast-like morphology with very thin elongated bodies on the left of the chip. With all the twists and turns that the cells made to grow on top of each other, and possibly as an effect of the rheology inside the microfluidic organ-on-a-chip during cell loading, they ended up looking like the famous painting De Sterrennacht/The Starry Night from Vincent van Gogh. This picture shows us how art can be found in the oddest of places as long as we keep looking with a curious eye to our own day-to-day experiments. 

Jury report:

There where a lot of good images! The winner had a good choice of color the resemblance with the van gogh painting is really clear.  And although this contest is  not about the science the technique is also cutting edge.

There was a bit of debate in the jury if a cut out would make it prettier  to put on the wall. But either way it is a real piece of art

Martinus van Marum prize for Tom Schirris

Tom Schirris, theme Metabolic disorders, has been awarded the Martinus van Marum Prize 2020 for Life Sciences and Technology of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities.

This award of € 12,500 is intended as an incentive prize for researchers who have obtained their PhD degree in 2015 or later. The jury, consisting of members of the Society, came to this decision unanimously. The award ceremony will be held at a later date to be determined during a festive meeting in the Hodshonhuis in Haarlem.

OARSI Basic Science Award for Peter van der Kraan

Since 1990, the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) has awared the Basic Science Award annually. Purpose of this prize is to stimulate fundamental research in the field of osteoarthritis. This year Peter van der Kraan, Dept. of Experimental Rheumatology, theme Inflammatory diseases, has won this award for his work in understanding the role of the growth factor Transforming Growth Factor beta (TGF-beta) in healthy cartilage and in osteoarthritis.

Peter van der Kraan and collaborators were the first to demonstrate that TGF-beta drives the formation of osteophytes and synovial fibrosis in OA joints, 2) found that TGF-beta acts as a protective, load-stimulated factor in a healthy, young joint, but as a harmful factor in an arthrotic joint, 3) that the protective function of TGF-beta decreases in old cartilage compared to young cartilage.

The Basic Science Award was to be presented at the annual osteoarthritis conference that would take place this year in Vienna. The official ceremony has been postponed by Corona. Of course, winning this prize is not a merit of Peter van der Kraan only, but an achievement of the entire Experimental Rheumatology laboratory, in addition to several PhD candidates and post-docs, in particular Henk van Beuningen, Esmeralda Blaney Davidson and Arjan van Caam.
 

Multiple prizes for nephrology researchers

During the combined Dutch Nephrology Days and Scientific Fall symposium of the Dutch Federation for Nephrology (NFN), a rain of prizes was collected by researchers from the research theme Renal disorders.

NFN Fall symposium best abstracts

Daan ‘t Hart (supervisors Tom Nijenhuis and Johan van der Vlag) and Baranca Buijsers (supervisor Johan van der Vlag) won the first and second prize, respectively, for best abstract presentation at the NFN Scientific Fall symposium. Daan’s abstract, entitled “Say NO to podocyte injury”, discussed a novel paracellular signaling pathway between endothelium and podocyte offering a putative new treatment option by repurposing the drug Riociguat. Baranca’s abstract was on the crucial role of plasma heparanase activity in COVID-19, a timely topic.

Dutch Nephrology Days best fundamental abstract

Jitske Janssen (supervisors Bart Smeets and Michiel Schreuder) won the award for best fundamental research abstract at the Dutch Nephrology Days for her abstract on the use of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived kidney organoid to model nephrotic syndrome.

Best thesis awards in Nephrology

In the top 3 of 2019 Nephrology theses, 2 out of 3 originated from the Radboudumc. Anneke Bech (supervisors Tom Nijenhuis and Jack Wetzels) won the third prize in this category for her thesis entitled “Diagnosis and treatment of renal tubular disorders”. The prize for the best thesis, enabled by the Dutch Kidney Foundation and the NFN, was awarded to Kioa Wijnsma (supervisors Nicole van de Kar, Bert van den Heuvel, Jack Wetzels and Elena Volokhina) for her thesis on hemolytic uremic syndrome.    

Ronald de Groot received a royal decoration

On 27 October, Ronald de Groot, Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics, received the message that 'it has pleased His Majesty the King ....'. He received this message 'remotely' during the opening ceremony of the online congress of the 'European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID)'. A special moment, because this year it was organized from Rotterdam. Throughout his career, Professor De Groot has made a very important contribution to the Society. During the opening ceremony, the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), Hugo de Jonge, spoke the legendary words that belong to a royal decoration.

From his appointment in 2005 until his retirement in 2013, Ronald de Groot has made a major contribution to the development and transfer of knowledge in paediatrics as head of the Department of Paediatrics and in numerous other administrative and advisory positions.

Infectious diseases on the map

Professor De Groot is known as a passionate and dedicated colleague who has put infectious diseases on the map within paediatrics. With his broad scientific view he was able to develop the knowledge of fundamental and clinical aspects of diseases such as sepsis and meningitis to a great extent. Through numerous publications and lectures he shared his knowledge with others.

Example for many

He guided more than forty young people to a successful PhD. He was also a member of the Health Council of the Netherlands and advised the RIVM. On an international level he held important positions such as president of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases. In addition, as a very accessible and knowledgeable paediatrician, he was an example to many.

We congratulate Ronald de Groot with his decoration as Knight in the Order of Oranje-Nassau. The actual presentation of the award is planned for 2021 if the coronavirus situation allows it.