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Program

09:30-09:35                 Welcome organizing committee

09:35-09:40                 Welcome Jeroen Pasterkamp

09:40-10:25                 Session I - Fundamental research of the UMC Utrecht Brain Center

09:40-09:55                  Jessy van Asperen - The effect of GFAP alterations on glioma cell proliferation, migration, and cell survival

09:55-10:10                  Andreia Duarte - Non-coding RNAs and their role in pharmacoresistant epilepsy

10:10-10:25                  Frank Meye - Comfort for the troubled mind: unravelling the neural basis for stress-feeding

10:25-10:50                 UMC Utrecht Brain Center Bingo

10:50-11:05                 Young talent - Winners of the Rudolf Magnus Young Talent Fellowship

11:05-12:00                 Keynote lecture - When fundamental research meets clinical research

                                             Cora Nijboer & Manon Benders - Intranasal mesenchymal stem cell therapy for the injured neonatal brain: from bench to bedside

12:00-12:30                 Lunch break

12:30-13:00                 Breakout session - Connecting Worlds: all you need to know about the new UMC Utrecht strategy

13:00-13:45                  Session II - Clinical research of the UMC Utrecht Brain Center        

13:00-13:15                  Daniel Vijlbrief - Big Data for Small Babies

13:15-13:30                  Catrin Finkenauer - Why loneliness is a risk for (mental) health: The power of social relationships

13:30-13:45                  Jan Veldink - Unravelling the genetic architecture for personalized, genetic-based treatments

13:45-13:55                 Prizes

13:55-14:00                 Final words organizing committee

Jessy van Asperen

The effect of GFAP alterations on glioma cell proliferation, migration, and cell survival

Gliomas are the most common form of malignant primary brain tumours in adults. The highly invasive nature of these tumours makes the disease incurable to date, emphasizing the importance of gaining a better understanding about the mechanisms of glioma invasion. In my PhD project, I study the role of the cytoskeletal intermediate filament (IF) network in glioma malignancy, with a focus on the IF protein glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). By combining CRISPR-Cas9 technology and in vitro models, we are investigating how altered GFAP expression levels, as observed in patient material, affects glioma cell invasion in the mouse brain ex vivo and in vivo. In this presentation, I will discuss the latest findings on how modulation of GFAP affects glioma cell proliferation, migration and cell survival.

Andreia Duarte

Non-coding RNAs and their role in pharmacoresistant epilepsy

I am currently in the last year of my PhD in Neuroscience under the supervision of Jeroen Pasterkamp in the UMC Utrecht.

For the past 3 years I have been investigating the mechanisms by which the non-coding transcriptome can be associated with neurodegenerative diseases. I do this by combining animal and in vitro models of disease with different biochemical assays.

Today’s talk will be mainly focused on a small class of non-coding RNAs, circRNAs, and their role in pharmacoresistant epilepsy. These molecules are deregulated in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and can act via distinct molecular mechanisms. Ultimately, we aim to understand these and unravel potential therapeutic targets that can be used in patients suffering from chronic epilepsy.

Frank Meye

Comfort for the troubled mind: Unravelling the neural basis for stress-feeding

Stress can trigger the overconsumption of tasty high-caloric food. In vulnerable individuals this contributes to the development of obesity or eating disorders. Tentative evidence points to disturbed interplay between the dopamine reward system and prefrontocortical, hypothalamic and limbic systems. However, the exact adaptations that stress drives within these networks to alter eating remain limitedly understood.

We use naturalistic social stressors in mice to model stress-eating. We use high-resolution neurophysiological measurements to study how stress functionally alters cortico-hypothalamic-limbic-midbrain networks. We then use targeted interventions to test causality between specific network changes and effects of stress on food intake.

Overall this research strives to understand the neurobiological underpinnings of stress-eating.

Cora Nijboer

Intranasal mesenchymal stem cell therapy for the injured neonatal brain: from bench to bedside

Cora Nijboer studied Medical Biology at Utrecht University and graduated in 2003 with honors. She joined the Department for Developmental Origins of Disease (DDOD) of UMC Utrecht as a PhD student in 2003. She now has >17 years experience in preclinical/translational research aimed at development of novel neuroprotective and neuroregenerative therapies for perinatal brain injury. She has developed multiple clinically relevant in vitro and in vivo models for neonatal brain injury as well as analysis techniques to assess outcome in animal models of neonatal brain injury. Together with her team and Prof. Hoebeek and Dr. de Theije, and the team of Prof. Benders (Dept. Neonatology) she aims at bringing novel therapeutic strategies from bench to bedside to protect or repair the newborn injured brain. She has been working with industrial partners, like Chiesi Pharmaceuticals and Nutricia Research on development of novel therapies for the injured neonatal brain. Nijboer supervises a team of PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, (bio)technicians and students.

Manon Benders

Intranasal mesenchymal stem cell therapy for the injured neonatal brain: from bench to bedside

I am  a  consultant  neonatologist  in  the Wilhelmina  Children’s  hospital  of  the  UMC Utrecht,  the  Netherlands.  I was  working  as  a  senior  clinical  lecturer,  King’s  college  London  and  honary  consultant  in  Neonatology at  Guy’s  and  St  Thomas'  NHS  Foundation  Trust in  2014.  I  did  a  research  fellowship  at  UCLA  in  1997,  USA  and  a  neonatal  neurology  fellowship  at  University  of  Geneva  (Prof.  dr.  P.S.  Hüppi) in 2006-2007. The  research  focus  of our group is  on  brain  development and neonatal brain injury using  advanced  quantification  MRI techniques  predicting  neurodevelopmental  outcome  and  developing neuroprotective/ neuroregenerative  strategies to improve lingterm outcome. I coordinate several clinical (inter) national therapeutic  trials. I supervise several  PhD  students  and  clinical  research  fellows,  working  in  different  national  and  international  research  projects.

Daniël Vijlbrief

Big Data for Small Babies

Daniel Vijlbrief (1975) studied at Millersville University of Pennsylvania through the Fulbright scholarship program. Returning to the Netherlands, he studied Medicine at Utrecht University. He specialized in Pediatrics in Utrecht and Tilburg. He continued in Neonatology in the Wilhelmina children’s hospital in Utrecht and the Isala Clinics in Zwolle. He works as a consultant neonatologist in Utrecht. In 2015, he finished his Ph.D. in Medicine with the title ‘Cardiac Biomarkers in Neonatology’. He is currently investigating the possibilities of Big Data in neonatal medicine, the Big Data for Small Babies (BD4SB) project. This project aims to build an early warning system and decision support tool for late-onset neonatal sepsis. Furthermore, investigations are on the way to apply Deep learning to retinopathy of prematurity. Future research will be directed toward bringing algorithms to clinical care in newborn medicine with the ultimate of improving the outcome of infants on the NICU smartly.

Catrin Finkenauer

Why loneliness is a risk for (mental) health: The power of social relationships

Catrin Finkenauer is professor Youth Studies at the University of Utrecht and scientific director of Dynamics of Youth. Dynamics of Youth is an interdisciplinary research institute designed to foster research collaborations within and between Utrecht University and society to accelerate research and education that helps all youth to thrive and become constructive, engaged citizens actively contributing to solving present and future societal challenges.

Jan Veldink

Unravelling the genetic architecture for personalized, genetic-based treatments

The overall aim of my research is to understand the genetic and environmental causes of ALS and related diseases, and to understand how one mutation has various clinical outcomes. I have a past performance with innovations both in the development of a custom reference panel that allowed the interrogation of rare genetic variation in a large sample of genotyped cases and controls. Currently, I am leading a large-scale international collaboration (Project MinE). The project is in the process of whole-genome sequencing 15,000 ALS cases and 7,500 population-matched controls (with > 10,000 genomes completed already).

Today’s talk will highlight the search for genetic causes in neurological disorders, and how understanding these genetic abnormalities can be translated to viable treatment options. The talk will highlight several recent advances in ALS in genotype-targeted treatments and pharmacogenetic interactions.

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