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The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded a Veni grant to ten young researchers at Radboud University. With this grant of up to 280.000 euro they can further elaborate their own ideas during a period of three years. Veni is aimed at excellent researchers who have recently obtained their PhDs.

In an international collaboration involving the University of Twente and universities in Finland and Australia, researchers have succeeded in reprogramming the capsids of plant viruses into different shapes. They did this by folding nanoscale DNA structures into moulds around which the capsids form.

PhD candidate Vincent Debets investigated which elements are important for the movement behavior of a cancer cell. Why do tumor cells stay put under certain conditions, but become mobile in others, raising the prospect of metastasis? TU/e researcher Vincent Debets looked at the cells in the human body from a physics perspective and developed a unique model designed to boost our understanding of complex cell movements.

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded ten Nijmegen researchers Vidi funding of up to 800,000 euros. This will allow them to develop their own innovative line of research and set up a research group over the next five years. Vidi is aimed at experienced researchers who have already conducted successful research for several years after obtaining their PhD.

The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded 188 promising researchers from the full breadth of science, fifteen of whom are from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, with a Veni funding. This will allow the laureates to further develop their own research ideas over the next three years.

TU/e researchers, including Ilja Voets, contribute to the development of a new anti-freeze protein that could preserve immune cells and perhaps even donor organs in the future. Dutch and American researchers have used computer simulations to develop a protein that works like an anti-freeze agent. Researchers could use this protein to freeze and defrost biological material such as immune cells, sperm, and perhaps even donor organs in the future, without causing any damage to the material.

Thanks to Helios, a new research installation that is part of the Netherlands Plant Eco-phenotyping Centre (NPEC) , it is now possible to automatically monitor the growth and development of more than a thousand plants, while gaining insights into how microorganisms affect them. Housed within the NPEC building at the Utrecht Science Park, the installation consists of, among other things, a growth chamber, a system of conveyor belts, several special cameras and a 3D laser scanner.

By zooming in to near-atomic level using electron microscopy, Tzviya Zeev-Ben-Mordehai and her team were able to identify the proteins that form the molecular machinery that drives sperm motility. More than twenty of these proteins were not yet recognised as part of the sperm motor apparatus, all of which are promising candidates for future research on infertility.

Utrecht University has appointed chemist Eefjan Breukink as professor of Microbial Membranes and Antibiotics. Breukink and his group are engaged in research aimed at finding new antibiotics that target bacterial cell membranes, the structures that separate the inside and outside of bacteria. Breukink: "It is my dream to discover an antibiotic that will truly aid us in combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria." Cell membranes are a fundamental component of all living cells, whether they are bacterial, animal, plant, or fungal.

Anthropogenic increased nitrogen deposition is a well-known environmental stressor, resulting in impoverishment of soil quality in naturally nutrient-poor ecosystems. As a result, habitat conditions for plant and animal species are also changing. Such changes are sometimes clearly visible in the field.

Nanoparticles restore balance in dysregulated immune system. Nanoparticles consisting of a designer protein that counteract an overreaction of the immune system, while simultaneously boosting that system. This invention offers possibilities for the treatment of sepsis, a condition in which the immune system is severely dysregulated.

Human behaviour changed dramatically during lockdowns in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in behavioural changes of land mammals. This is according to a study published in Science by a large international research team led by Marlee Tucker, ecologist at Radboud University. Wild mammals travelled longer distances and occurred closer to roads during strict lockdowns.

Eveline van Doremaele received her doctorate cum laude from the Department of Mechanical Engineering on Thursday, May 25. Current computer systems are very good at performing exact calculations. But as we are using more and more AI-based applications, we also need more efficient systems that are able to process data in real time with the same precision.

DNA archival storage within reach thanks to new PCR technique. Storing data in DNA sounds like science fiction, yet it lies in the near future. Professor Tom de Greef expects the first DNA data center to be up and running within five to ten years. Data won't be stored as zeros and ones in a hard drive but in the base pairs that make up DNA: AT and CG.

Within five to 10 years, we will be able to store data in DNA, Professor Tom de Greef expects. Data will not be stored in zeros and ones on a hard disk, but in the base pairs AT and CG that make up DNA. In such a new DNA data centre, new files are then encoded via DNA synthesis. In another section, there are large fields of spheres: with a file packed into each sphere.

Jeffrey Bajramovic is sinds juli 2022 het nieuwe hoofd van het 3Rs Centrum Utrecht (3RCU). Zijn ambitie voor het 3RCU is om een aanspreekpunt en actiecentrum voor de 3V's te worden, door informatie te centraliseren en door onderzoekers te faciliteren om nieuwe benaderingsmethoden (NAM's) op te pakken.

Jeffrey Bajramovic has been the new head of the 3Rs Centre Utrecht (3RCU) since July 2022. His ambition for the 3RCU is to become an advocate and a centre of action for the 3Rs, by centralizing information and by facilitating researchers to take up new approach methods (NAMs). On 11 May, the 3RCU will organize a seminar to present Jeffrey and the plan of action for the centre.

Jeffrey Bajramovic has been the new head of the 3Rs Centre Utrecht (3RCU) since July 2022. His ambition for the 3RCU is to become an advocate and a centre of action for the 3Rs, by centralizing information and by facilitating researchers to take up new approach methods (NAMs). On 11 May, the 3RCU will organize a seminar to present Jeffrey and the plan of action for the centre.

Two protein complexes carry the major responsibility for the spatial organisation of chromosomes in our cell nuclei. DNA tension plays a surprising role in this. Together with Austrian colleagues, nanoscientist Cees Dekker and his PhD candidate Roman Barth of the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at TU Delft now publish how they have visualised this in detail in Nature on April 19.

DNA replication is the process whereby cells make an exact copy of their DNA before cell division. A key part of the intricate DNA replication machinery is a molecular motor called CMG, which has the vital task of separating the two strands of the DNA double helix so that they can be copied. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from TU Delft has now developed a new methodology to assemble and image the motion of CMG with unprecedented resolution.