The paper of CNCR researcher Ilan Libedinsky “Genetic timeline of human brain and cognitive traits” has been awarded the Best Student Paper Award at the 23rd annual conference of the International Society for Intelligence Research (ISIR), held in Berkeley, California, from July 27-29, 2023.

Dr. Stephanie Dooves, Liza Kok and colleagues performed a study aiming to enhance our understanding of the disease mechanisms behind 4H leukodystrophy. This study, performed under the supervision of Dr. Vivi Heine and Prof. Nicole Wolf, provides the first insights into the cellular mechanisms underlying 4H leukodystrophy.

In a study published in Nature Genetics, Cato Romero, Mats Nagel, and Sophie van der Sluis teamed up with colleagues from the Complex Trait Genetics department and the Million Veteran Program to scrutinize the genetic similarity of twelve psychiatric disorders. Besides identifying shared genes and biological substrates between pairs of disorders, they also elucidated the challenges jeopardizing the future success of cross-trait genetic research.

The performance of CNCR researchers Rachel Brouwer, Loek van der Kallen and Mahesh Karnani has been evaluated positively and we are happy to announce that they are rewarded a permanent employment contract.

Rachel Brouwer (assistant professor CNCR - CTG) recently published her work in Nature Neuroscience. The study is a large-scale collaboration of research groups worldwide and identifies genetic variants that are associated with the speed of structural brain changes over time.

Douglas Wightman (PhD student CNCR-CTG) publishes his first results in Nature Genetics. The large scale genetic study resulted in the discovery of novel genes and biological mechanisms that contribute to the pathogenesis of the disease.

Prof. dr. Danielle Posthuma has been awarded the 2021 Mensa Foundation Prize for her research directly identifying, for the first time, hundreds of human genes highly correlated to variations in intelligence.

Dr. Vivi Heine has been awarded the Open Competition ENW-M grant (700kEuro) for the development of 3D cell-instructive engineered stem cell models of human brain networks.

With the €30.000 grant Stephanie Dooves will use patient-derived stem cell models to study Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) disease mechanisms in the project “Targeting astrocytes to improve neuronal functioning in TSC”.

Computational neuroscientist Martijn van den Heuvel has been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). Over the next five years he will study connections in the brain and the role they play in how the brain functions.