Recently, several prestigious prizes and grants have been awarded to our AI&I members. Learn more about these accomplished individuals and their projects in the article below!
ZonMw Grant 'Implementation of AMR Knowledge in practice' - Dr. van Mansfeld
Over the next four years, Dr. van Mansfeld, alongside Dr. Dekker (right), will develop customized strategies against the spread of AMR through their project, "Application of Infection Prevention by Doctors" (STIP). A key focus will be addressing how resistant bacteria, often spread in hospitals via healthcare workers’ hands, can be controlled more effectively. Despite the importance of infection prevention (IP) measures such as hand hygiene, compliance remains suboptimal, particularly among doctors. The
specific needs and preferences of doctors are often overlooked during
implementation efforts.
They will collaborate with Dr. Christiaan Vis from
the Amsterdam Public Health institute (APH) and board member from the Amsterdam Center for Implementation Science (AmsCIS) to create a tool offering tailored strategies for doctors, addressing local needs and challenges in infection prevention. The project will be tested in hospitals to identify barriers and refine solutions.
Veni Grant – Dr. Marry Smit
The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded Veni grants of up to €320,000 to 10 promising researchers from Amsterdam UMC. The Veni grant, part of the NWO Talent Programme, supports early-career researchers in developing their innovative ideas over a three-year period. Representing the Amsterdam Institute for Immunology and Infectious diseases, this round's recipient is: dr. Smit.
Dr. Smit has been awarded a Veni grant for her project: Picture Perfect Ventilation – Lung Imaging for Personalized Treatment of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS).
Research background: Nearly 1 in 3 patients with acute lung injury does not survive the intensive care unit. Personalized ventilation based on lung imaging has the potential to significantly improve survival rates, but current methods are too complex for widespread use. Dr. Smit is developing an advanced tool to analyze lung images and is researching how personalized ventilation can improve patient outcomes, aiming to enhance both the technique and its application in intensive care automatically and more accurately.
ReumaNederland Grant – Dr. van Hamburg, Philippon, van Rooijen, and Prof. Tas
Researchers Dr. Jan Piet van Hamburg (senior postdoc), PhD candidate Eva Philippon, research technician Lisanne van Rooijen, and Professor Sander Tas have secured a research grant of €425,000 from ReumaNederland. With this funding, they aim to develop organoids that closely mimic the inflamed tissue in the joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (the most common inflammatory joint disease). The ultimate goal is to test the effects of various treatments in the laboratory and thereby better predict individual patients' therapeutic responses. This brings personalized treatment for rheumatoid arthritis one step closer, while also potentially reducing the need for animal testing in the future.
Figure 1. Schematic representation of the current research project focused on patient-derived organoids to mimic synovial tissue heterogeneity and predict clinical treatment response.