An international team of researchers, including Danielle Posthuma of the VU & VUMC Amsterdam, identified Rare Copy Number Variants in NRXN1 and CNTN6 that increase the risk for Tourette Syndrome. The findings were published in Neuron, June 21.

An international team of researchers has found, for the first time, seven risk genes for insomnia. With this finding the researchers have taken an important step towards the unravelling of the biological mechanisms that cause insomnia. In addition, the finding proves that insomnia is not, as is often claimed, a purely psychological condition. Today, Nature Genetics publishes the results of this research.

An international research team led by Prof Danielle Posthuma from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands, has made a major advance in understanding the genetic underpinnings of intelligence. Using a large dataset of more than 78,000 individuals with information on DNA genotypes and intelligence scores, the team discovered novel genes and biological routes for intelligence.

Aniket Mishra and Danielle Posthuma (CNCR-CTG), in collaboration with Yolande Pijnenburg (VUMC) and the international FTD Genomics consortium, report novel genetic links for clinical subtypes of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), published in Brain this month.

17 December 2016: Tinca Polderman’s expert opinion about the overlap between ADHD and autism in the Dutch ‘Volkskrant’, and about parental influences on children’s behavior (not much!) in the German ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’.

Jorim Tielbeek, Tinca Polderman and co-authors publish a review on the development of aggressive behavior in the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews:

Commentary on translating genome-wide association findings into new therapeutics for psychiatry, in this months Nature Neuroscience issue by Danielle Posthuma et al.

European Leukodystrophy Association (ELA) awarded Vivi Heine to study if modulation of Hyaluronan in the host brain microenvironment of a mouse model for Vanishing White Matter Disease (VWM) can improve stem cell therapy.

In this expert review, the challenges for modeling of psychiatric disorders, potential solutions and how induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) technology can be used to develop an analytical framework for the evaluation and therapeutic manipulation of fundamental disease processes is evaluated.

June 2, 2016, 15:30-17:45. Venue VU: Location: room WN-M129, Vu University, W&N Building, De Boelelaan 1085-1087, Amsterdam.
Speakers: Ben Neale, Brendan Bulik-Sullivan, Mark Daly