Great news! The CureQ consortium has been granted by the NWO (Dutch Research Council) and started this month. The CureQ program focusses on a distinct group of dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disorders caused by a CAG repeat expansion within the relevant genes, including Huntington’s disease (HD) and various spinocerebellar ataxias (SCA). Over 5.5 million euro will […]
Ronald Buijsen is this year’s recipient of the Gewirtz Award for postdoctoral researchers and Young Industrial Professionals of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society (OTS). He received the award for his contributions in the field of oligonucleotide therapeutics. The award is given in honor of Professor Alan Gewirtz, one of the founders of the oligonucleotide therapy field […]
On Monday 3 October, the kick-off of our CureQ consortium was held: an introduction of all those involved who will work together over the next 5 years on predicting, delaying and curing the hereditary polyglutamine brain diseases Huntington, SCA1 and SCA3 (www.cureQ.nl). Researchers and neurologists from various Dutch universities, various HBO courses, ethicists, biotechnology companies, […]
The first participant of the SCA7 study reported yesterday at our Radboudumc Expertise Center for Rare and Hereditary Movement Disorders. With this, we have officially started the research into the natural course and possible biomarkers in this disease! This is an important step towards the ultimate long-term goal: slow down, stop or prevent the disease! […]
Elena Daoutsali and Ronald Buijsen from the NeuroD research group were awarded the Sargenti Research Grant, organized by the Neuroscience Research Theme. The grant was for the field of neurodegenerative diseases and made possible through a donation from the legacy of mr. Sargenti to the Leiden University Fund. Together with the group of Saskia Lesnik […]
As of 1 October, our group head, Willeke van Roon-Mom, has been appointed as Leiden professor of Human Genetics, in particular of neurodegenerative disorders! So we now have a real Professor in our group. “My entire scientific career I have been working on hereditary brain disorders that are caused by problems. Together with colleagues, I […]
After 4 years of hard work, our paper “Antisense oligonucleotide-induced amyloid precursor protein splicing modulation as a therapeutic approach for Dutch-type cerebral amyloid angiopathy” has been published in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics (DOI: 10.1089/nat.2021.0005). In this study we explored the use of an antisense oligonucleotide (AON) as a therapeutic approach for Dutch-type cerebral amyloid angiopathy (D-CAA), a […]
On 1st of June 2021 we started a new research project on FOXP1 syndrome. To do most of the work in this project Elena Daoutsali came back to us, after she left when her PhD period was finished. Good to have her back! Forkhead-box protein P1 (FOXP1) is part of the forkhead-box family of transcription […]
On Rare Disease day, 28th of February, last year, Willeke van Roon-Mom, along with others in the LUMC, Radboudumc and Erasmus MC started the Dutch Center for RNA Therapeutics (DCRT). After exactly 1 year, the website www.rnatherapy.nl was launched on which information can be found about DCRT and updates will be posted on things going […]
Researchers from the NeuroD group in collaboration with other participants from an EU COST Action summarise the latest advances in delivery of RNA therapies. Drugs that target RNA were considered a curiosity until recently, used mainly in research in rare diseases and personalised therapies. However, this new research field has registered a boost in the […]