CARIM Newsletter December 2015

CARIM Newsletter December 2015

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This newsletter contains information on the following subjects:

CARIM Talent Fellowship
Terpstra YIA Kristiaan Wouters
Publication hypertropick remodelling
CARIM Award Rob van der Zander
Dissertation prize 2013-2014
Grant deadlines
Cardiovascular Grand Rounds Maastricht
Symposia & other lectures
Academic events
Media appearances

CARIM newsletter

Contributions for the newsletter (e.g. news of events and grants, important publications, societial impact related topics and research results related to CARIM's research) can be sent to carim-office@maastrichtuniversity.nl. Please submit the text in English and include a short title. The text should be max. 200 words. If applicable, include high resolution pictures and other documents.

CARIM Talent Fellowship

CARIM has initiated a new fellowship to support talented PhD students in realizing an one-year research project as a Post-doc. It has a budget to provide one year of competitive salary as a Post-doc and must be spent partly at a foreign institute. CARIM PhD students that are in the final year of their PhD trajectory are eligible. The submission deadline for the first fellowship is the 18th of April 2016. Additional information can be found on the CARIM website.

Terpstra Young Investigator Award for Kristiaan Wouters

Kristiaan Wouters (Dept. of Internal Medicine) was awarded the Prof.dr. J. Terpstra Young Investigator Award for his research on circulating immune cells and type 2 diabetes. The prize was presented during the annual meeting of the NVDO.

The main purpose of this award is to encourage young researchers who execute fundamental and / or clinical scientific research in the field of Diabetes Mellitus. For this year the focus will be on clinical research. The research should be innovative (clear hypothesis), clinically relevant (results) and lastly the proposal needs to be of high quality.

The Prof. J. Terpstra Young Investigator Award is worth 10.000 Euros. This amount of money must be invested in the research itself. Next to that, the winner will receive a memorial with engraving. The ceremony will take place during the annual meeting of the NVDO. During this meeting, the winner of the prise will give a short presentation about his or her research.

Source photo: Liesbeth Dingemans

Hypertrophic remodelling in cardiac regulatory myosin light chain (MYL2) founder mutation carriers

Eur Heart J 2015

This study investigated the influence of additional genetic and environmental risk factors on the phenotypic outcome of patients with the same mutation in the myosin regulatory light chain 2 gene (MYL2). In a large MYL2 founder mutation cohort, the mutation on its own was not sufficient to develop hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in most patients. The presence of an additional risk factor for hypertrophy, particularly hypertension, added to the development of HCM.

These findings have important consequences for clinical practice as they indicate that the early diagnosis of risk factors is important for the early treatment of MYL2 mutation carriers. Close cardiological monitoring should be guaranteed in this case.

The findings of this study also suggest that the presence of hypertension or another risk factor for hypertrophy should not be an exclusion criterion for genetic studies in pronounced left ventricular hypertrophy.

Paul Volders contributed to this study as co-Principal Investigator, on behalf of CARIM.

Rob van der Zander wins first CARIM award

During CARIM Symposium 2015 that took place on November 4, the first CARIM award was presented to Rob van der Zander. The CARIM Commitment Award is intended for any CARIM member who has devoted his/her heart and soul to CARIM in an exceptional way, be it on an academic, managerial, service or community level. The award consists of a bronze coin of the sculptor Marina van der Kooi.

'Since the very beginning of Carim he is the help and stay of the scientific staff and as such he has been and still is an important silent force behind the success of Carim. We all are acquainted with administrative officers that stress their personal importance by finding a difficulty to every solution. In fact it is one of the hardships of scientific life to cope with the hurdles that are put on our way by administration. The mind-set of Rob is precisely the opposite: He feels that he is there to make life easier for those who are to produce the result that Carim thrives on: Good research. This commitment he knows to enact on the whole staff that he is in charge of."

Dissertation prize for Teba Alnima and Martin Schmitt

Teba Alnima and Martin Schmitt both received the CARIM Dissertation Award 2013-2014 during the evening program of the CARIM symposium 2015 on November 4, 2015.

Teba received the award for her thesis "Carotid baroreflex activation therapy. Potential mechanisms in resistant hypertension" and Martin for his thesis "JAM-A: Junctional adhesion molecule-A or Janus Acting Mediator in atherosclerosis".

Who's new?!

My name is Ying Xin, born in Henan, China. I received my master’s degree

in Internal Medicine from Zhengzhou University in Jul 2015. In the past 3 years, my study project mainly focused on obesity and osteoporosis. Since October this year, I have started as a PhD student at Maastricht University at the department of Internal medicine under the supervision of Prof. Schalkwijk, Prof. Stehouwer and Dr. van Greevenbroek. My 4 years’ PhD research will focus on exploring the relationship between the complement system and T2DM and will include both epidemiological and laboratory work. I am glad to begin a new life and study here.

Grant deadlines

DOWNLOAD HERE THE SUBSIDY CALENDAR FOR SEPTEMBER 2015 - MARCH 2016

BBMRI-NL ‘voucher for biobank science’ - Deadline December 15, 2015
Click here for more information

Dr Dekker Junior Postdoc - Deadline January 19, 2016
Click here for more information

Dr Dekker Arts in opleiding tot specialist - Deadline January 19, 2016
Click here for more information

ERC Consolidator Grant - Deadline February 2, 2016
Click here for more information

EMBO Long-Term Fellowships - Deadline February 12, 2016
Click here for more information

December 11 - Dobromir Dobrev, MD, PhD, University Hospital Duisburg-Essen, Germany
"Cellular and molecular mechanisms of paroxysmal AF"

December 18 - Roland Tilz, MD. PhD, Asklepios Klinik St. Georg Hamburg, Germany
"Epicardial VT ablation: techniques, indications and outcomes"

Starts at 7.45 am, Academic hospital Maastricht, Meeting room A3-B3, level 3
Breakfast included! Registration not necessary
Click here for an overview of all the CGRM lectures of the fourth quarter of 2015

Symposia & events

IMCARIM seminar Dr Leon Schurgers - December 17, 2015
Click here for more information

Puls 2016 - February 18, 2016
Click here for more information and the programme

26th Genetics Retreat - April 21 & 22, 2016
Click here for more information

School Council meetings 2016:
- January 14, 12.00-14.00 hours
- April 26, 12.00-14.00 hours
- June 27, 12.00-14.00 hours
- October 18, 12.00-14.00 hours

Academic events

PhD Conferral Ajay Suresh Sharma, Thursday December 10, 2015, 12.00 hours
Supervisor: Prof. J.G. Maessen
Co-supervisor: Dr P.W. Weerwind
Title: "Extracorporeal Life Support - Applications and Considerations"

PhD Conferral Hussein Nasrallah, Wednesday December 16, 2015, 10.00 hours
Supervisor: Prof. U. Schotten
Co-supervisor: Dr S. Verheule
Title: "Left atrial vascular metabolic remodeling in pig models of atrial fibrillation"

PhD Conferral Yanti Octavi, Wednesday December 16, 2015, 12.45 hours (k. 1.169)
Supervisors: Prof. H.J. Crijns, Prof. D.J. Duncker (EUR)
Title: "Endothelial nitric oxide synthase; Dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde"

PhD Conferral Pieter Eijgenraam, Thursday December 17, 2015, 10.45 hours (k. 1.169)
Supervisor: Prof. H. ten Cate
Co-supervisors: Dr A.J. ten Cate-Hoek, Dr R. van den Ham (Philips Eindhoven)
Title: "Studies on safety issues in anticoagulant management"

Media appearances

Rob Reneman (Dept. of Physiology - het Parool, Saturday 10-10-2015: 'Blijf oog houden voor het onverwachte'

AD/Amersfoortse Courant 27-11-2015:'Spaanse soldaat zorgt voor hartklachten bij nageslacht'

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