Upfront dose reduction of chemotherapy in older patients with metastatic colorectal cancer may reduce the number of severe side effects of chemotherapy and thus improve quality of life. Dr. Nienke de Glas and her team have received funding from the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF) to investigate dose-reduced chemotherapy in a randomized trial that will be enrolled in 40 Dutch hospitals.

In the Netherlands, more than half of the patients diagnosed with metastatic colorectal cancer are 70 years or older. [...]

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Researchers at Health Campus the Hague (LUMC) and the Juliana Children’s Hospital (the Hague), have started a new study on the intergenerational transmission of parental adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). These are potentially traumatic events that occur during childhood. ACEs can have long-lasting negative consequences. Recent literature even suggests that parents can transmit their ACEs onto their children. Children born to parents with ACEs have a higher risk of being born prematurely or small for gestational age. The mechanisms of intergenerational [...]

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When predicting biological age in research, regression to the mean can be an issue. Marije Sluiskes and others from LEGend posted a PubPeer comment (a postpublication peer review platform) to a recent publication of Daunay et al. 2022 (Aging) which did not consider this phenomenon.

Daunay et al. compare four types of epigenetic clocks in three groups: semi-supercentenarians (mean age ± standard deviation: 101.3 ± 1.4), offspring of nonagenarians and centenarians (61.2 ± 6.1), and individuals from the general [...]

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In the LUMC, every 2nd Tuesday of the month, at 12.00 o’clock, a walk-in session will be held to help PhD candidates with the Converis Graduate School module. The Graduate School office will provide tips & tricks and answer any questions regarding PhD milestones and practical issues. The first session will be held on April 11th, 2023.

Walk-in sessions will also be held for Primary Thesis advisors – these will be held on the last Thursday once every quarter, also [...]

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This Wednesday the 15th of March, Martijn Nagtegaal received his PhD title with honors (cum laude). The defense took place at the Senaatszaal of the Technical University (TU) Delft. His PhD project was part of the Medical Delta collaboration Diagnostics 3.0: Dementia and Stroke, with shared supervision from TU Delft, Erasmus MC and LUMC (Jeroen de Bresser and Thijs van Osch).

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A new group of students from the Master’s Vitality & Ageing have received their diploma in the Academic Building of the University of Leiden. This Master’s prepares students for an important role in improving the future of our care. The program can be followed in one fulltime year. However, since 2021, there is also the option to do it in two part-time years and thus combine it with a professional career or second Master’s. The unique, future-focused and interdisciplinary Master’s [...]

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Kaare Christensen, Danish epidemiologist and biostatistician at the University of Southern Denmark, visited the group of Molecular Epidemiology to discuss collaboration within the ZonMW Open Competition project investigating the socio-genetic pathways of human ageing rate and longevity. The research group of this project headed by Eline Slagboom including Niels van Berg, Pasquale Putter, Mar Rodriguez-Girondo and Marian Beekman discussed potential research questions that can be answered especially by the group of Kaare Christensen in Odense by the use [...]

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On January 25th 2023, Nicolien van Vliet defended her PhD thesis entitled “Is thyroid status a common denominator of age-related disease?” and received her PhD with honors (cum laude). Congratulations Nicolien and team!

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Sigurdur Sigurdsson has been awarded a PhD doctorate on his extensive work on the AGES-Reykjavik study (Age/Gene-Environmental Susceptibility). This population-based longitudinal study followed a community cohort of Icelandic participants collecting multiple phenotypes including sampling of genetic material, blood chemistry, cognitive test batteries and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This work from Sigurdur and many others, including Leiden radiologists that contributed to the MRI sampling methods especially, has generated some landmark studies on risk factors and protective factors of cardiovascular- [...]

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