MCN news

Early-life stress and amyloidosis share pathogenic pathways

Collaborative work between the teams of Mark Verheijen (VU-MCN) and Aniko Korosi (UvA-SILS), is recently published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia. The research was mainly performed by Mandy Kater (VU) and Janssen Kotah (UvA), among others, and shows that ‘Early-life stress and amyloidosis share pathogenic pathways involving astrocyte lipid metabolism and the synaptic mitochondrial proteome’.

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Mechanisms Of DEMentia (MODEM): connecting the dots

“We all believe in the importance of a different piece of the puzzle.” prof. dr. Guus Smit says when he explains why this consortium was formed together with 20 other researchers. “It’s about connecting the dots, the cohesion between seemingly different processes underlying the development of dementia from different perspectives. That is what we are looking for in Mechanisms Of DEMentia (MODEM). Because that coherence has to be there. There is no other way.”

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ZonMW funds multidisciplinary CNCR collaboration

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.

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Astrocyte-synapse proximity determines memory strength

Aina Badia-Soteras, together with others of the Neuron-Glia Interaction team and collaborators, has shown that retraction of fine astrocyte processes from the synapse is a regulated process that gates the strength of fear memories. This work is published in Biological Psychiatry

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Three CNCR researchers each awarded a VIDI grant

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.

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Identification of neurons that promote compulsive alcohol use

Michel van den Oever and Esther Visser were involved in a study on compulsive alcohol use led by Markus Heilig and Esi Domi at the Linköping University in Sweden. Using the viral-TRAP technique developed by the CNCR Memory Circuits team, they identified a small population of PKC-delta-expressing neurons in the central amygdala that drives footshock-punished alcohol intake. Their findings are published in Science Advances.

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Glucocorticoids alter the formation of memory engrams

A collaborative study by members of the Memory Circuits team together with the lab of Harm Krugers and Sylvie Lesuis (UvA) reveals that elevated levels of the stress hormone corticosterone induce an increase in the size of a hippocampal fear engram and this change underlies generalized expression of fear in a neutral environment. Their findings were published in Biological Psychiatry.

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Pre-stage of Alzheimer disease neurons characterized

A new study by David Hondius, Frank Koopmans and colleagues provides molecular evidence that so-called granulovacuolar cells are representing the pre-tangle neuronal stage in Alzheimer disease. The study was published in Acta Neuropathologica on January 25, 2021.

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Alzheimer Nederland grant to revive silent memories

Memory Circuits Team (Michel van den Oever) and Alzheimer Team (Ronald van Kesteren) join forces to test how hyperactive interneurons affect the formation and reactivation of memory engrams. They receive a 300 k€ grant from Alzheimer Nederland to investigate this.

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Discovery of a persistent alcohol-cue memory trace

PhD student Esther Visser and colleagues in the team of Michel van den Oever (MCN) investigated how alcohol memories are stored in the brain and how this contributes to relapse after prolonged abstinence. Their findings were published in Science Advances.

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Stitching the Synapse

A new study by Miguel Gonzalez-Lozano (MCN) and colleagues demonstrates how cross-linking mass spectrometry can contribute to the discovery of novel synaptic protein interactions. The study was published in Science Advances on February 19, 2020.

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Nature Communications paper for Memory Circuits team

A study performed by PhD students Mariana Matos and Esther Visser in the team of Michel van den Oever reveals that expression of a remote fear memory depends on a small ensemble of neurons in the medial prefrontal that functions as an enduring physical memory trace, or engram.

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Novel insight into the molecular engram of aversive memory

A team of researchers from the CNCR (led by Priyanka Rao-Ruiz and Michel van den Oever, MCN lab) and the Erasmus MC (led by Steven Kushner, Dept. of Psychiatry) used a sensitive and unbiased RNA sequencing approach to identify gene expression signatures critical to the storage of long-term memories by sparse ensembles of hippocampal neurons. This collaborative effort was published in Nature Communications.

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eLife paper for CNCR ‘Shisa’ team

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.

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PLoS Biology paper for Glia research team

A team effort of Nutabi Camargo, Andrea Goudriaan, Anne-Lieke van Deijk, Mark Verheijen (PI) and collaborators shows that myelination by oligodendrocytes in the CNS requires lipids derived from astrocytes and diet.

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Sabine Spijker receives Vici grant

Sabine Spijker receives 1.5 M€ for her research on depression. ‘This Vici grant allows me discover what is the limit in information processing that is apparent in ‘the prison of depression’.

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Biological Psychiatry paper for Lubbers, De Vries and Spijker

MCN PhD-student Bart Lubbers and PIs Taco De Vries and Sabine Spijker present first evidence for a molecular mechanism for relapse to nicotine seeking in the prefrontal cortex in which GABAA receptor trafficking is essential. Their findings are currently available in on-line issue of Biological Psychiatry.

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