The number of elderly people is increasing and healthcare is becoming increasingly expensive. Clinicians also notice this in geriatric rehabilitation care (GR). Clients’ wishes are also changing: they increasingly value rehabilitation close to home. We therefore have to design the GR differently: more outpatient (from home) and less in the nursing home or rehabilitation clinic.

On the 1^st of June, 2023, various Dutch researchers started a new research project: ‘Thuis als het kan’ (At home if possible), sponsored by [...]

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The Research Directorate of the LUMC has sought out new grants for funding opportunities in medical research in the coming year(s). This is of interest to any researchers looking for funding to start new (large-scale) projects. Included are grants from two large funding bodies, KWF Kankerbestrijding and NWO. The funding programmes and calls can be summarized as follows:

 

KWF offers a Consortium project with flexible funding and different modules. The deadline is unknown at this time. [...]

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A new study by dr. Whitney Freeze and others looked at the relationship between changes in cerebral small vessel disease and a part of the brain stem called the locus coeruleus (LC). Cerebral small vessel disease is an umbrella term for conditions affecting the brain’s blood vessels such as cerebral amyloid angiopathy and atheriolosclerosis, as both can damage small arteries. These vascular pathologies can contribute to Alzheimer’s dementia.

The researchers used brain tissue from deceased individuals who were enrolled in [...]

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Louise van der Weerd, Boyd Kenkhuis and others published a paper with Erasmus MC on iron accumulation in patients with frontotemporal lobe dementia. Neuroinflammation has been implicated in frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) pathophysiology, including in genetic forms with microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) mutations (FTLD-MAPT) or chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72) repeat expansions (FTLD-C9orf72). Both DNA mutations are associated with eventual brain cell death, thereby mediating a strong decline in brain volume in the frontal and temporal areas of [...]

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LUMC investigator, dr. Louise van der Weerd, has received a 300.000 euro grant from the BrightFocus Foundation for a new research project on the histopathology of Alzheimer’s dementia. In this project, van der Weerd and her group aim to do a comprehensive analysis of the histological spreading pattern of iron in the cortex of patients with varying degrees of Alzheimer’s pathology.

Amyloid and hyperphosphorylated tau are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s Disease, and follow a specific distribution pattern, which was described [...]

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