Participating Research Institutes

Frese and his team investigate the possibilities to interconnect photosynthetic materials to (semi-)conducting substrates for biosensors and solar energy harvesting. The entire biochemical and biophysical toolbox is applied, as well as state of the art materials like plasmonic nanostructures, mesoporous materials and redoxgels. Goal of the research is to understand the interconnection of biological nanomaterials with inorganic materials, utilising nature's machinery for novel technology. The methods are fundamental physical  investigations such as confocal fluorescence, photobioelectrochemistry and simple biochemical growth and purification procedures. Technology derived exemplifie a biological aproach to materials, not forcing stability but enabling constant recycling of resources and renewable devices.

Our lab creates and improves fluorescent paints that are inspired by nature. The paints consist of fluorescent proteins that are encoded by DNA. By introducing the DNA into organisms, cells autonomously generate the paint. We apply these paints to identify cells or highlight structures inside otherwise transparent cells with fluorescence microscopy. Context-aware paints can be used to detect specific processes that occur in cells. Ultimately, we use this technology to visualize how cells respond to other cells and their environment.

The relevance of placebo effects is shown for many physical conditions. For example, pain is effectively reduced by placebo effects, only due to expectations of beneficial treatment outcomes (“Pain already reduces when seeing the painkiller”). The same is true for nocebo effects as expectations of possible unfavorable treatment outcomes (“I always react hypersensitive to medicines”).  Expectations also play a role for bodily processes, such as immune functioning via conditioning (Pavlov’s dog). We aim to use this knowledge for optimized treatments, for example,  by improving trust during patient doctor communication or reducing the doses of pharmacological treatments by conditioning.

Fungi cause a wide spectrum of diseases in humans including life-threatening infections through invasive growth of hyphae. We investigate many aspects of fungal diseases including diagnosis, resistance and treatment. Microscopy is one of the methods to visualize the presence of fungal hyphae, using optical brighteners. Despite the severity of the fungal disease we are intrigued by the beautiful images of the hyphae when they are visualized through immuno fluorescent staining.

Extremely little is known about the structural and functional properties of individual adult human neurons since we typically lack the techniques to study human brain function at the microscopic level. Our lab has pioneered in investigating the relationship between structure and function of individual neurons across all layers in adult human cortex, through the use of living brain tissue obtained during resection surgery in the VU medical center (Amsterdam, the Netherlands). We developed a groundbreaking pipeline to handle living human brain tissue and preserve resected human brain material for the study of fundamental neurophysiological properties. Through dye-labeling, light microscopy and digital reconstructions, we are able to visualize and capture the detailed structure of human neurons in unprecedented detail and for the first time, study the complete architecture of the building blocks of our brain.

We study the involvement of the immune system in a variety of intestinal disorders. For this we use recent technological innovations that allow a high-dimensional analysis of the immune system in health and disease. The high-dimensionality and complexity of the resulting datasets require innovative methods for data analysis and visualization. For this we have a close collaboration with the Computer Graphics and Visualization Group from the Delft University of Technology. The images that we obtain based on this work are highly inspirational and visually attractive. Two recent examples are shown below, one which made it onto the cover of a recent issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the other a figure from a recent paper from our groups. We think it would be very interesting to work with an artist to further increase the scientific outreach to a broader (lay) audience.

Robotic/bionic body parts for humans

Rehabilitation of persons with a disability is a process of life-long learning that requires hard work and effort to reach optimal participation in society. This process of rehabilitation is stimulated most when the patient practices as active and as much as possible. Rehabilitation technology is indispensable to train patients to perform activities of daily living as independently as possible while providing assistance where needed. At ‘Roessingh Research and Development’ we focus at innovative persuasive training robots and smart assistive devices, that can make rehabilitation treatment more fun, more effective, and more efficient. Please also see: www.rrd.nl

A mechanical watch is self-running, almost like a beating heart. The interaction between the small springs and cogs are the engine behind this beating heart, but when these components fail the watch will stop over time. Biology is closely related to this watch: interactions between biological entities in our cell are the maintenance units for our cellular processes. However, potential toxic compounds can disrupt these entities that lead to failure over time. At the UM Department of Toxicogenomics, we aim to understand these interactions between different biological entities to unravel the biological effects that happen after exposure to a potential toxic compound.

Every year 200 women die of cervical cancer in the Netherlands. With HPV vaccination we can now prevent cervical cancer, and in theory wipe this lady killer from the face of the earth. Yet to achieve this goal, enough people must be vaccinated and that is currently not the case. On the contrary, the number of girls vaccinated has dropped to 45% last year. This declining vaccination coverage is probably caused by the spread of conspiracy theories of anti-vaxxer groups via intentional social media campaigns. To save lives, we need to formulate novel interventions to halt the detrimental effects on our vaccination programmes caused by these deliberate campaigns of misinformation.

Sex is ambiguous. When thinking about biological reproduction, generally males and females will spring to mind, and possibly the differences between them. In addition, people will associate this with individuals being nice to each other, for instance by offering gifts (like chocolates or roses). However, nature is not all roses. While on the surface reproduction may seem like a harmonious event with clear-cut sexual roles and a joint goal, it can be far from it. Koene’s group studies such sexual conflicts, their behavioural, physiological and evolutionary consequences and how genderfluid-like strategies are used to optimize reproductive success.

The Genetic Laboratory at the EMC Rotterdam investigates the influence of genetic factors on disease risk in populations. These factors, encoded in your DNA, do not change throughout life, and the risk they pose on disease can be predicted. However, what does this mean? Genetic information is on the verge of large-scale implementation into society and healthcare. How do people deal with this kind of information? Or are genetic risk scores just a part of daily life? How to find a balance between technical possibilities (what you can do) and implementations of these into daily life (what you would do).

We study how light and temperature regulates growth and resilience in plants. Light and temperature affect the biological clock in plants and many genes that determine growth and resilience of the plants. To monitor the effect on plant genes clock genes, we made a collection of ‘glowing’ reporter plants (containing a firefly gene). In these plants the activity of plant genes can be filmed under different light conditions. Similar as in humans, the plant clock causes daily fluctuations of gene activity inside the plant. This results (for instance) in daily fluctuations in growth, in resistance to stresses and in daily fluctuations in production of medicinal compounds in plants. Also similar to humans, plants synchronize the clock with the daily light cycle. We investigate how the light receptors of plants are regulated to perceive the light and we use mutants which are partially  ‘blind’ to light. This research has its application in greenhouses where the growth or resilience against pathogen attack is controlled through alternative light/temperature regimes i.s.o. using chemicals. Sometimes, plants that experience a ‘jetlag’ perform better!