NBS and FEBS Travel Grants for Internships

Grants for international internships

The NVBMB and Nora Baart Stichting (NBS) has awarded travel grants for internships abroad to the following students:

Juliët Schreurs (Master Molecular Mechanism of Disease, Radboud University) will be going to the Telethon Kids Institute at the Perth Children's Hospital in Australia to conduct research in Professor Jason Mackenzie's group on a­n RNA-based next-generation hydrogel immunotherapy.

Merel Hendrikx (Master Molecular Mechanism of Disease, Radboud University) will visit the Karolinska Institute in Huddinge, Sweden, to investigate the immune response to various HBV/HDV vaccination strategies in Professor Matti Sällberg's group.

Megan Hannon (Master Molecular Mechanism of Disease, Radboud University) will be joining the group of Geral McInerney at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, to conduct research on the characterization of critical host factors in alphavirus infections.

Ellen Ploeger (Master Microbiology, Radboud University) will be going to the Malaria Virulence and Drug Discovery Group at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne, Australia, to study the machinery of proteome export in Plasmodium under the supervision of Professor Paul Gilson.

Laura Ruland (Master Cancer, Stem Cells, and Developmental Biology, Utrecht University) will be joining Professor Richard Lee's group at the Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology in Cambridge, United States, to investigate the role of FOXM1 in determining the fate of PSC-CMs.

Scott Engels (Master Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences, Leiden University) will be conducting research on malignant cell involvement in multicellular immune hubs in colorectal cancer under the supervision of Dr. Karin Pelka at the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology in San Francisco, United States.

Maroune El Boujadayni (Master Bio-Pharmaceutical Science, Leiden University) is the recipient of the final grant awarded by The Nora Baart Foundation (NBS) for an internship abroad.. Marouane will be going to the Lynch lab at the Harvard Institutes of Medicine, Harvard University, in Boston, USA. In Dr. Lydia Lynch's research group, Marouane will be conducting research on a bio-orthogonal chemistry approach to studying cholesterol (esters) in γδ17 cells.

Milou Stevens (Master Molecular Mechanisms of Disease, Radboud University) will be going to the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Parkville, Australia. There, she will be investigating the functionality of the norovirus NS3 in relation to translation and reduction of production of mediators of the innate immune system under the supervision of Professor Jason Mackenzie.

Carolina Rangel (Master Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences, Utrecht University) will visit the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in La Jolla, United States. She will be conducting research on the mechanisms of stathmin-2-dependent regeneration in Professor Don Cleveland's group

Previous recent recipients of travel grants:

Renske de Jong(Master Infection and Immunity, Utrecht University) will perform an internship in the lab of Dr. De Witte, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, New York. Renske de Jong will investigate the impact of inflammation on brain development by making use of cerebral organoids, small pieces of brain tissue that mimic certain brain functions.

Ezra Bekkering (Master Molecular Mechanisms of Disease, Radboud University) will perform an internship in the lab of Trevor Sweeney, The Pirbright Institute, Woking, United Kingdom. The aim of the study is to unravel the protein‐RNA interactions in NS5‐mediated translation regulation in flaviviruses.

Laura Akkerman (Master Molecular Mechanisms of Disease, Radboud University) will visit the lab of Marcel Muller, in the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany. She will study the molecular mechanisms underlying  putative virus tolerances in bats​.

Anne Flier (Master Biomedical Sciences: Infection and Immunity, Utrecht University) will visit the lab of Stephanie Dougan, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Teaching Hospital of Harvard Medical School, Boston. She will investigate how the immune system fails to restrain Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) metastasis.

Luuk Broeils (Master Cancer, Stem cells and Developmental Biology, Utrecht University) will perform an internship in the lab of Martin Enge, Karolinska Intitutet, Solna, Sweden. He will explore the gene regulatory effect of enhancers showing aberrant activity in late-stage pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

Tomas Post (Master Medical Biology, specialisation Human Biology – Radboud University Nijmegen) will visit the lab of  Mandy van Leent, Nanomedicine Laboratory – Department of Radiology BioMedical Engineering and Imaging Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY. He will evaluate the use and effectivity of nanoimmunotherapeutics in SARS-CoV2 infected primates and mice.

Other recent travel grant recipients:

Fenna Craenmehr (master Biomedical Engineering, TU/e) will visit the University of Zurich, Switzerland, to work on the synthesis of 14-3-3 proteins in the lab of Prof. Nina Hartrampf. Joanne van Keulen (master Infection and Immunity, UU) will visit the Université de Lausanne, Switzerland, to work in the lab of Prof. Veening to elucidate which genes and environmental factors are important in the regulation of competence in S. pneumoniae.

Anneloes Keijzer, Master Cancer, Stem Cells & Developmental Biology, Utrecht University will visit the lab of Dirk Hockemeyer, Li Ka Shing Center, University of California, Berkeley. The goal of her research project is to elucidate the molecular principles of telomere length control and telomerase-related diseases.

Irene Zaalberg, Master Cancer, Stem Cells & Developmental Biology, Utrecht University, is going to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, in Boston. There she will investigate the role of glycosylation in pancreatic cancer cells resistant to inhibition of the enzyme dihydrootate dehydrogenase.

Carli Koster, Leiden University, Life Sci & Technol, will rotate in the lab of David Sabatini, Whitehead Institute, MIT, Cambridge. Her studies are aimed at understanding how colorectal cancers and precursor adenomas reprogram their metabolism to scavenge nutrients through the lysosome.

Björn van Sambeek, Radboud University Nijmegen, Biomed Sci, will visit George Church, Harvard Medical School, Boston to determine How do transcription factor (TF)-differentiated microglia-like cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPS) interact with cerebral organoids.

Frederique van den Haak, Utrecht University, Infection & Immunity, will rotate in the lab of Hidde Ploegh, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, to study Novel Neutralizing Nanobodies Against the Ebola Virus.

Klasina Chappins, Utrecht University, Infection & Immunity, will perform an internship with Mark Hogarth, Burnet Institute, Melbourne to investigate the development and characterization of therapeutic antibodies.

Mara Nicolasen, Radboud University Nijmegen, Biomed Sci, will visit Ilaria Malanchi, Francis Crick Institute, London to study cross-talk between breast cancer cells and normal stromal cells of the bone.

Maren Pfirrmann, master molecular mechanisms of disease, Radboud University, will visit the Telethon Kids Institute in Nedlands, Australia, to work on immunotherapy in the context of a surgical procedure for cancer.

Nienke Prins, master life science & technology, University of Leiden, will perform her internship at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, to find new molecular targets to inhibit the filamentation of pathogenic bacteria.

Jaël Copier, master biology of disease, University of Utrecht, will visit the Imperial College London to unravel the role of calcium in arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, using scanning ion-conductance-microscopy.