The Functional Genomics department studies the presynaptic nerve terminal in health and disease.
We study presynaptic mechanisms that adjust synaptic transmission (presynaptic plasticity), the trafficking & fusion of neuropeptide vesicles (dense core vesicles) and presynaptic mechanisms of degeneration.
We love to share our work & insights with society. We have produced short films on brain myths and the Virtual Brain Experience, that allows you to see the brain from within. We also collaborate with the Museumnacht and explain our science to lay people, school children, patients & their caretakers and clinicians.
The Functional Genomics (FGA) department was established in 2001 when Matthijs Verhage moved in from Utrecht with a small team.
FGA is part of the Human Genetics Department of Amsterdam UMC, as well as the Life Sciences faculty of the VU University. Furthermore, FGA is embedded in Amsterdam Neuroscience.
A recent study from the Molecular Neurodegeneration lab led by Wiep Scheper (FGA) has been published in Science Advances. In this work first author Jasper Smits and colleagues from FGA and MCN elucidated a previously unknown intrinsic resilience mechanism against tau aggregation in neurons.
Brain disorders caused by mutations in single genes often present unexplained large symptom diversity. The new study shows that non-linear genetic interactions between two or more functionally related genes, STXBP1 and SNAP25, causes extreme phenotypic diversity. The study is published in Molecular Psychiatry.
Ambika Mahajan (FGA) has been awarded the poster prize at the annual meeting of the Dutch Dementia Researchers Conference (DDRC), a national platform aimed at bringing together researchers from all dementia-associated disciplines.
