Good news! Our research paper titled “Amyloid beta (Aβ) accumulations and enhanced forebrain neuronal development and neuronal network formation in cerebral organoids of Dutch-type Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy patients” was accepted for publication in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. Willeke ordered a cake with one of the figures from the paper on it to celebrate with first […]
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 […]
I’m Abel Nijkerk, and I’m a master student Biomedical Sciences at Leiden University. Since February 2020, I’ve been conducting my internship here at the Neuro-D Lab Leiden under David Parfitt‘s supervision. One of the group’s main research lines is the development of an AON for Huntington’s Disease. The group’s been using different models to test […]
Written by: Elsa Kuijper “Good morning, good afternoon, good evening to you all!” – that’s how most of the presentations start at an international conference nowadays. Joining the virtual meetings from home at different parts of the world, an early morning meeting for one can be during the night for the other. In the beginning […]
The SCAsource website is a website on which information about SCAs and related ataxia diseases is written in easy language by SCA scientists. This way, they want to make this information accessible for ataxia patients and families. Since this year they have a topic in which labs that do research on ataxia diseases can introduce […]
On Friday November 13, we had a very successful, fully online Dutch HD research symposium November, organized by Harrie Kampinga and Greetje Noppert from the University Medical Center in Groningen. Before lunch we were updated on aggregation propensities of the mutant huntingtin protein by presentations from submitted abstracts from Mark van der Klok (RUG) using […]
Please support the AFM Telethon fund raising. Each year, the AFM Telethon funds hundreds of researchers, doctoral and post-doctoral students. This year, the Telethon is threatened. Due to the health crisis and the confinement, thousands of events organized by volunteers will not be able to take place. These events represent more than 40% of the […]
On wednesday 24th of June, we organised a brainstorm teambuilding day with the whole group. A day to discover what things go well and what things can be better. We rented a nice conference room somewhere in Leiden and discussed our work in several ways. We made use of a test to determine the group […]
The past two months have really been a roller coaster ride. Having all the labs shut down felt very surreal, and not something I accounted for while planning the final year of my PhD. Luckily, I have been allowed to come into the lab every morning to keep long-term studies with iPSCs ongoing, but coming […]
Because of the new coronavirus the LUMC took measures to prevent spreading of the virus. Many people are working from home because of these measures. For me it means that I am working from home as much as I can. Because my mouse experiments take 18 months I am allowed to go to lab. We […]
The Duchenne Parent Project visited Willeke van Roon-Mom and Annemieke Aartsma-Rus at the LUMC to talk about the Dutch Center for RNA Therapeutics that started in March this year. In the movie you will learn what the purpose of this center is and you can also see how our lab looks!