A collaboration between Marijn Schipper and Danielle Posthuma from CNCR-CTG and Camiel Mannens and Sten Linnarsson from the Karolinska Institute Sweden has led to the publication of the first map of chromatin accessibility and paired gene expression in the entire developing early embryonic human brain. The study is published May 1, 2024 in Nature.
This multidisciplinary work led by Marieke Meijer (Amsterdam UMC - FGA) describes how tomosyns limit synaptic strength at rest to equalize synaptic transmission during activity.
A collaboration between CNCR-FGA and University of Heidelberg shows that protein instability is the generalizable, primary cause. A new prediction tool outperforms all existing predictors. The paper is out now in Biological Psychiatry.
Neurotransmitter release is less synchronized in SYT1-associated disorder, according to a new study from the Cornelisse lab.
The STXBP1 team (FGA) joined 150 other researchers, healthcare professionals, industry representatives, and patient families and -advocates from all over the world for the first European meeting fully dedicated to STXBP1
Irune Guerra San Juan and Matthijs Verhage (FGA) became partners in an international consortium that designs and tests oligonucleotides to suppress poison exon insertion and restore full length Stathmin 2 expression in sporadic ALS
A core problem in several dementias is the inability to form new memories and gradual loss of old memories. Funded by a ZonMW open competition grant, the teams of Wiep Scheper (Amsterdam UMC Human Genetics/FGA), Priyanka Rao-Ruiz (VU MCN) and Michel van den Oever (VU MCN) will collaborate to obtain mechanistic insight into memory formation and persistence and how this is disturbed in dementia.
Van der Kant and the VU Medical Center receive funding for unravelling the associative link between exercise and lipid metabolism in prevention against Alzheimer.
The American National Institute of Health will fund new brain research of three CNCR researchers at VU Amsterdam through the so-called Brain Initiative programme. Brain research is desperately needed to better understand and treat brain diseases.
Rik van der Kant, Natalia Goriounova and Priyanka Rao-Ruiz, researchers at the Center for Neurogenomics & Cognitive Research at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, have been awarded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) with a Vidi grant worth 800,000 euros.
The global biopharmaceutical company UCB and an FGA team led by Ruud Toonen signed a 700k€ contract for joint research to develop new treatment strategies for genetic epilepsy syndromes.
The STXBP1 team of FGA obtained funding from the 2019 Million Dollar Bike Ride event, organized by the Orphan Disease Center in the US, for a high throughput screen to identify new therapeutic interventions for STXBP1 patients.
CNCR organized, together with new UMCA professor Hilgo Bruining, a colloquium at the Royal Academy bringing together world leaders to discuss neurodevelopmental disorders and science-based intervention for individual patients.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science awards 19.6 million€ Gravitation grant to BRAINSCAPES consortium led by CNCR
Wijnand Geraerts, biologist by training, designed CNCR together with Menno Witter and Dorret Boomsma, promoting groundbreaking, multidisciplinary research and bringing scientists with different backgrounds together within CNCR.
Together with clinicians and researchers from Utrecht, Nijmegen and Twente, CNCR researchers Verhage, Cornelisse, Meijer (FGA) and Linkenkaer-Hansen (INF) received a €1,8M grant to improve personalized medicine for children with autism.
On Oct. 13, the 1st STXBP1 Patient Clinic Day will take place at VUmc in Amsterdam. The day is part of our studies on STXBP1-Encephalopathy (STXBP1-E) in a collaboration between FGA-CNCR, Clinical Genetics and VU spin-off company NBT Analytics.
The CNCR ‘Shisa’ team presents the characterization of a yet unknown glutamate receptor auxiliary subunit important for learning and memory. Their findings are currently available in the open access journal eLife.
At the annual meeting of the graduate school Neurosciences Amsterdam and Rotterdam (ONWAR) CNCR members Marieke van Ziel, Vincent Huson, Marinka Brouwer, Claudia Persoon and Mariana Raimundo Pinto de Matos won the Blitz presentation and oral presentation prices.
Four CNCR PhD students of the MCN department win a poster price at the annual Amsterdam Neuroscience meeting 2017.
For the first time in history, researchers have isolated the parts of the human genome that could explain the differences in how humans experience happiness.
The study analyzed the results from 2,748 studies, containing nearly 18,000 human traits, and is based on information from more than 14.5 million twin pairs. The study is published on May 18, in the leading journal Nature Genetics.
Psychiatric disorders – such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression – share genetic risk factors related to histone methylation (involved in DNA regulation) and immune function. This finding is a result of a large international study, including researchers from the VU/VUmc, in which they analyzed genetic data from over 60,000 individuals.
Aarts et al. propose using multilevel analysis as a solution to dependency between observations often seen in biological neuroscience data.
NWO Brain & Cognition awarded Anke Hammerschlag and Sabine Mous from the Complex Trait Genetics group for best integrated project on “An Integrative Theory of the Genetically Mediated Neural Substrates of ADHD‚. Watch their creative, musical presentation on youtube.
Victor Lamme delivered an entertaining and thought provoking keynote lecture on "The science and adventure of neuromarketing".
Danielle Posthuma (FALW & VUmc) and Huib Mansvelder (FALW) both receive a prestigious Vici grant (NWO). They are two out of eight VU and VUmc top-scientists to receive 1,5 million euro each for conducting research for the following five years.
Joint effort of CNCR researchers Ka Wan Li, Danielle Posthuma, Guus Smit and researchers from Leuven University (Belgium) shed new light on the role of the CYFIP1 gene. This gene has been linked to various neurological disorders, including intellectual disability, autism and schizophrenia.
Early October, the Human Brain Project – an EU Flagship initiative in which over 80 partners will work together - was launched. The initiative will realize a new "ICT-accelerated" vision for brain research and its applications. The VU-CNCR is one of the partners. Sabine Spijker, Guus Smit and Huib Mansvelder participate in this research.
CNCR collaborators, who took part in the Brain-Train project, attended the Neuroscience Brain Train Conference at the Riken Center for Life Science Technologies in Japan.
VU Neuroscience master students attended attended ‘Ion Channels in Health and Disease: a symposium to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Nobel Prize awarded to Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley’.
CNCR company page available now. Get connected and stay in touch with colleagues and alumni.
Christiaan Levelt is per 1 augustus 2013 benoemd als hoogleraar in de ‘Moleculaire en cellulaire mechanismen van corticale ontwikkeling en plasticiteit’. Hij is benoemd vanwege de Stichting het Vrije Universiteitsfonds. De leerstoel is ingebed bij de afdeling Moleculaire en Cellulaire Neurobiologie.
Andrea Goudriaan and colleagues show that sets of genes involved in specific glial function are associated with the risk to develop schizophrenia. They used genomewide association (GWA) data from 13,689 schizophrenic patients and 18,226 controls from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and the Swedish Schizophrenia sample.
Matthijs Verhage was honoured as a top researcher and awarded with a VU University Research Fellowship during the opening of the new Academic Year on 2 September 2013. He appointed Claudia Persoon as his Fellow student.
An international group of scientists including researchers of the CNCR have detected 22 independent genetic risk variants for schizophrenia. Thirteen of these have never been reported before. In addition, these novel results point to an enrichment of significant findings in genes that influence L-type calcium channels.
CNCR and NIN researchers publish the "Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire". By quantifying thoughts and feelings, the tool bridges the missing link between conscious experiences and brain activity during rest.
CNCR researchers collaborated on a ground breaking study, revealing genetic similarity between different mental disorders. The study is the first to demonstrate such a link. It was published online in Nature Genetics on August 11, 2013.
Rogier Poorthuis, PhD student at the department of Integrative Neurophysiology, receives a Rubicon grant from the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). He will join the group of Johannes Letzkus at the MPI for Brain Research in Frankfurt.
'Critical Minds' (CRIMI) will use criticality theory and mental training to understand the dynamics of mind wandering in healthy subjects and patients with major depressive disorder. The PhD project is funded by a "Research Talent" grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (MaGW, NWO) to Klaus Linkenkaer-Hansen (PI) and earmarked for Mona Irrmischer.
Ruud Toonen and Sabine Schmitz (FGA) publish in the june 2013 issue of The Journal of Cell Biology. The results on the organization of presynaptic terminals originate from a fruitful collaboration with the group of Prof. Casper Hoogenraad (Utrecht University).
A worldwide consortium of medical researchers and social scientists found that tiny differences across a person’s genetic sequences are associated with the educational level.
Jorim Tielbeek, Arne Popma (PI), Theo Doreleijers, Henning Tiemeier, Tinca Polderman and Danielle Posthuma received the prestigious NWO Research Talent grant. Their research proposal is entitled 'From gene to mean. A neuroimaging genetics study on functional gene sets involved in endophenotypes of antisocial behaviour'.
An international consortium led by Prof. Marjo van der Knaap and Prof. Frédéric Sedel (Paris) published this high impact research report on May 22 2013. The study reveals the link between autosomal-recessive CLCN2 mutations and an emerging group of leukoencephalopathies affecting brain ion and water homoeostasis, being characterised by intramyelinic oedema.
With the grant, CNCR scientist Van der Sluis will build her own research line.
Prof. Sabine Spijker successfully applied for an Innovative Doctorate Programme, funded by the EU Marie Curie agency. The consortium she will coordinate runs under the title "CognitionNet". A total of 14 doctorate students will be guided towards their graduation in the coming years.
Thanks to the grant, Groen will be doing research at University College London for two years.
NWO has granted funding for the purchase of research equipment and the development of data collections. The total investment amounts to 6.5 million euros. 15 grant applications were honored.
Van der Sluis et al. propose new statistical tool that allows researchers to identify genes associated with multiple phenotypes
CNCR and NCA researchers discover a new autism-related syndrome by combining clinical and fundamental research
