Christiaan Vinkers: Understanding the impact of childhood trauma in depression
Many people experience childhood trauma which increase the risk for psychiatric disorders such as depression. But can people recover from childhood trauma? This project tries to understand the long-lasting and severe impact of childhood trauma and test whether a ‘reset’ of the stress system can help to treat depression related to childhood trauma.
Betty Tijms: Strong brain connections for resilience to dementia.
Brain functioning relies on the connections between brain areas. Alzheimer’s disease disrupts brain connectivity and causes dementia. However, individuals who have strong brain connections show slower disease progression. The researchers will investigate which biological processes contribute to strong brain connectivity, in order to find novel ways to delay Alzheimer’s disease.
Camiel Boon: Developing cutting-edge treatments to combat early hereditary blindness
X-linked juvenile retinoschisis (XLRS) is a relatively common hereditary eye disease, for which there is no treatment. XLRS causes severe vision loss or even blindness in childhood. I will develop a cure for XLRS in experimental models that mimic the disease, based on patient-specific stem cells and an animal model.
Source: NWO