Heart cells multiply
Menno ter Huurne is currently working in Australia as a postdoc researcher. With this grant he will return to the Netherlands to conduct research into heart failure in the group of Christine Mummery, Professor of Developmental Biology. “Because adult heart cells are unable to multiply, damaged heart tissue, caused for example by a heart attack, is not renewed,” Ter Huurne explains. “In this research I will use heart organoids made from stem cells to develop and use a screening platform to find out which factors can stimulate heart cells to multiply.”
Unraveling the cause of chronic bowel disease
Vincent van Unen has been back in the Netherlands since the end of 2022. He came to Leiden from Stanford where he worked on a new model to study intestinal tissue. Thanks to the Marie-Curie grant, he can continue this project in the laboratory of professor Jannie Borst. He focuses on chronic intestinal inflammation. Because although this occurs in 500 out of 100,000 people, little is still known about exactly how the disease arises. In addition, current treatments lead to improvement in only 30-40% of patients. “So there is a need to unravel the cause of the disease in order to arrive at more targeted therapies,” says Van Unen. However, no accurate model exists to study chronic intestinal inflammation. Van Unen’s goal is therefore to use organoid technology, which he also worked with at Stanford, to find out what underlies this condition.
Improving immunity against malaria
At the end of 2022, Rajagopal Murugan also came to Leiden. Until then, he conducted research in Heidelberg and Berlin into antibodies against AIDS, malaria and COVID-19. “Malaria is one of the leading causes of death in low- and middle-income countries. Despite recent advances in vaccination, long-term immunity is not being achieved,” says Murugan. “In this project I want to map the cellular and molecular characteristics of the antibody response that contribute to protection against malaria.” By collaborating with the groups of Professors Meta Roestenberg and Maria Yazdanbakhsh, Murugan will be able to combine knowledge of developing vaccines against parasites and B-cells, the factories that make antibodies, with the latest techniques to study immune cells.
Protection against streptococci
The Parasitology Department welcomes researcher Dennis Hoving, who previously worked in the United Kingdom. In Simon Jochems’ group, he will conduct research into the pneumonia-causing bacterium streptococci. “Despite pneumococcal vaccines, pneumonia remains a leading cause of death, especially in young children, the elderly and individuals with compromised immune systems. And we still know little about the specific B cells responsible for protecting against the disease,” he says. Hoving wants to find out how our immune system responds to these bacteria and pneumococcal vaccines, focusing on the B cells. “Mapping B-cell immunity to the streptococcal bacteria and the vaccine contributes to accelerating and improving vaccines.”