Today, one in five children are diganosed with a developmental disorder. This ‘label’ of a developmental disorder in reality spans a broad spectrum of multiple disorders, including autism, ADHD and learning disabilities with different causes, diverse symptoms and various degrees of severity. The N=You Center focuses on the individual child. Individuality is considered closely in our care, and used as a fundamental for our research in order to provide the little patients with the best possible tailor-made treatment.

About

Children with various symptoms are gathered under the label of neurodevelopmental disorders as if it were a uniform label. Failing to consider the underlying causal factors and degrees of severity can have major consequences.

Children do not receive the right treatment and/or medication and consequentially suffer from sometimes harmful side effects. Available medical interventions are focused on suppressing symptoms rather than addressing the root cause of said neurodevelopmental disorders. N=You strives to treat children not based on a diagnose or ‘label’, but rather a tailored approach based on the root of the neurodevelopmental gap.

According to N=YOU, children should be understood and treated based on their individual needs and the contributing factors to their developmental gap. The N=You Neurodevelopmental Precision Center focuses on the individual child simultaneously from a healthcare as well as a scientific research perspective. For every patient a so-called N=You Diagnostic Profile is created in a digital dashboard. Factors taken into consideration include perinatal history, development, somatic history, family history, genetic mutations, an EEG profile, patient reported symptoms and environmental factors. We strive to continuously incorporate research findings into our treatment to improve treatment and prognosis of the individual child as quickly as possible.

Research

N=You strives to develop and implement new treatments for individual patients.

The N=You scientific research combines EEG analyses with genetic and cellular diagnostics. The aim is to dive into the genes and causes of individual patients. To this end, the researchers grow stem cells from a tiny piece of skin into neurons. With this appraoch it is feasible to look at the patient's genetic material whether there is a cellular disturbance in the so called excitation/inhibition balance. By linking these findings to the EEG results, it can then become visible what the effect is on information processing and brain development. The use of stem cell cultures thus opens up a new framework for rational, mechanism-based treatment. In addition, it allows us to safely test means to correct the stimulus E/I balance. If that works in the lab, we have a tailor-made medicine for each child to repair the disturbance in the stimulus transfer.

Our treatments are applied with so-called 'N=1 trials'. In addition, a child receives the tailor-made drug that the researchers have found in the lab, interspersed with periods of treatment with a placebo. Then, with the help of EEG and stem cell diagnostics, the actual effects of the new treatment methods are examined.

is currently executing the BUDDI-trial program. Participants are children with a neurodevelopmental disorder within the 7 to 17 years age range and will be subjected to 6 months of bumetanide treatment.

Projects

N=You research is embedded in a number projects and consortia aiming to innovate and implement precision medicine treatments:

Researchers

Contact

Tel.: +31(0)20 5669111
E-mail address: n.is.you@amsterdamumc.nl