Four Veni grants for young Radboudumc researchers

28 July 2017

Four researchers from Radboudumc have been awarded a Veni grant the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). These grants of up to €250,000 provide highly promising young scientists with the opportunity to further elaborate their own ideas during a period of three years.

An overview of the honored research projects:

Radboud university medical center

The magnesium journey through the renal cell: how to get out?
Jeroen de Baaij - Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences
Theme: Renal disorders
Renal magnesium wasting is often the cause of low magnesium levels (hypomagnesemia) in patients. Jeroen de Baaij will examine the cells that transport magnesium in the kidney. For fifteen years, it is already known how magnesium enters these kidney cells, but the mechanism of subsequent extrusion to the blood compartment remains elusive.

Building a digital pathologist for improved treatment of prostate cancer
Geert Litjens - Radboud Institute for Health Sciences
Theme: Urological cancers
The treatment of prostate cancer patients is largely determined by a pathologist inspecting tumor tissue. Sadly, there can be large discrepancies between pathologists in this inspection, sometimes resulting in incorrect treatment for patients. Geert Litjens is developing an automated tissue analysis method based on ‘deep learning’ to better assess patient prognosis.

Language in the brain, from left to right
Vitória Piai - Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior
Theme: Neurodevelopmental disorders
The overwhelming majority of people use their left hemisphere to speak and understand language. However, in patients who suffered left-hemisphere damage, for example due to stroke, the right hemisphere seems to be able to take over language functioning. Vitória Piai will investigate how the right-hemisphere language system works.

Posterior Urethral Valves: Causes and prediction of future kidney function
Loes van der Zanden - Radboud Institute for Health Sciences
Theme: Renal disorders
Boys with the birth defect posterior urethral valves have obstructed urinary outflow. This may cause severe kidney damage, sometimes already before birth. Loes van der Zanden will try to answer the two most burning questions of future parents: “What causes posterior urethral valves?“ and: “Will our son have normal kidney function?”.

Another ten were also awarded to researchers at Radboud University.

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