Re-start Wetenschapslunch Psychiatry meetings

Posted by Admin on June 2020
Beginning on Monday June 22nd, we would like to re-start the Wetenschapslunch Psychiatry meetings. However due to the current COVID-19 pandemic and until further notice these meetings unfortunately can only take place virtually. Before the start of the summer holidays, we have been able to organize Wetenschapslunch Psychiatry meetings by Zoom: the first on Monday June 22nd and the second meeting on Monday June 29th.

For next week’s meeting, Titis Fitriana has kindly agreed to present during our inaugural Wetenschapslunch Psychiatry meeting by Zoom on Monday June 22nd at 12 h. She will be introduced by Jan van Busschbach. The title of her presentation is: 'EQ-5D Youth Valuation Study: How people behave in trading life years for children.'

We would like to invite everyone to join the meeting by using the Zoom invitation link: https://zoom.us/j/91495137605 (the meeting ID is: 914 9513 7605)

! Please realize that Zoom will not open in the 'my workspace' location of Erasmus MC. You need to enter using your personal computer environment (tablet/laptop or phone).

We would like to ask all participants to put their microphone on mute while joining the meeting and if you have questions at the end, please let the speaker know by chat so she’ll be able to ask you to either unmute yourself or to ask the question by chat.
Moreover, particularly given the digital platform, we would strongly ask everyone to not share any patient sensitive data during these meetings!

As this will be the first time we’ll meet for the Wetenschapslunch Psychiatry meetings by Zoom, we sincerely hope that it will be a great success. But in the event that you experience any problems or have ideas for improvement, please have no hesitation to share your concerns and/or suggestions with us.

We’re very much looking forward to the meeting, so hopefully we’ll see you all on Monday June 22nd at 12 h.

Kind regards,

Steven Kushner, also on behalf of Mariëlle Caspers, Joke Tulen and Witte Hoogendijk

Joint appointment of Prof. dr. Steven Kushner at the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry in New York

Posted by Admin on January 2020
We are pleased to announce the joint appointment of Prof. dr. Steven Kushner at the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry in New York beginning March 1st, as an extension of his continued appointment at the department of Psychiatry at Erasmus MC.

This collaboration marks a further expansion of the GEZIN study bringing together psychiatric genetics, stem cell modeling and translational neurobiology, and offers unique opportunities for knowledge exchange and visits between faculty, staff and students of the department of Psychiatry of Erasmus MC and Columbia University.

ZonMW Create2Solve challenge grant for Femke de Vrij

Posted by Admin on January 2020
We are pleased to inform you that Femke de Vrij has been awarded 100k Euro for a first-phase grant of the ZonMW Create2Solve challenge for the study 'An animal-free human 3D cortical network platform for screening myelination and inflammation phenotypes'.

Project description:

Recent developments in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology offer the unique opportunity to implement lineage-specific human cellular models suitable for drug development applications. In this project, researchers will expand their established platform for 3D neural networks of human brain cells that resemble the human frontal cortex in early development. An industry partner contributes innovative synthetic extracellular matrix technology to support 3D structure formation. The resulting 3D MICrobrains model the essence of cortical structure formation in a miniature format that is literally about 1millionth the size of a normal human brain. The platform will contain all relevant cell types: functional neurons and glial cell types in layered radial structures, including astrocytes, myelinating white matter cells (oligodendrocytes) and cells that are crucial for immune responses in the brain (microglia). Moreover, this advanced animal-free 3D MICro-brain platform is amenable to high throughput analyses for screening purposes.

Demi Brizee awarded Thesis Prize for Biology

Posted by Admin on December 2019
Demi Brizee has been awarded the Young Talent Thesis Prize for Biology for her master thesis written for the Research Master in Neuroscience, titled 'Activity-dependence of parvalbumin interneuron myelination.' The prize was awarded by the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen) and was sponsored by Enza Zaden.

In her thesis, Demi described how myelination, the insulating protective layer surrounding brain cells, could be changed in the adult brain by activity of the brain cells themselves. Unexpectedly, these changes were accompanied by alterations in the shape of the cells. Demi’s thesis shows that the brain, even in adult age, remains plastic in various manners, which could potentially be important for the treatment of various brain disorders.

The thesis work was performed in the Department of Psychiatry at the Erasmus University Medical Center under supervision of Prof. dr. Steven Kushner. The thesis has been published in the leading Journal of Neuroscience.