Translational Neuroscience

The research mission of the Department of Translational Neuroscience is to discover and delineate mechanisms and processes which are fundamental to the development of neural systems and to the control of behavior as well as to translate these to pathogenesis and disease models. We use cutting edge technology, disease models as well as computational tools to achieve these goals.

Our teaching mission is to raise the next generation scientists and clinicians with state-of-the-art knowledge, technical expertise and vision in the field of neuroscience. As a part of this effort, we teach in several Bachelor courses, coordinate the Neuroscience and Cognition master program of the Utrecht University and offer doctoral and postdoctoral training.

News

August 3, 2021 / Grants, News

Vidi grant for Frank Meye

Assistant professor Frank Meye researches how stress alters the strength of connections in the brain involved in decision-making, and how this can lead to impulsive eating behavior. He also investigates how this process can be turned for the better by targeted manipulation of brain activity.
He has received the prestigious VIDI grant (800,000 euro), titled “The need to eat: Why stress makes you crave junk food “, to facilitate his research at our Translational Neuroscience Department.

“This Vidi grant plays a crucial role in further forming my research group that aims to understand how stress leads to plastic changes in the brain, and how this plays a role in multiple disease processes. It’s great that this application has been granted, as our lab is very excited to take on the challenge of better understanding these important processes!” Frank Meye

External links:
https://www.umcutrecht.nl/en/about-us/news/details/seven-vidi-grants-awarded-to-umc-utrecht
https://www.nwo.nl/en/researchprogrammes/nwo-talent-programme/projects-vidi/vidi-2020

June 28, 2021 / News, Public outreach

Life of a Principal Investigator. A Talk with Prof. Dr. Elly Hol

Are you dreaming about academic career? It is very useful to hear the experiences of daily professional life of a principal investigator from a person, who actually has undergone this pathway. Learn about a great example of outstanding academic career in the conversation of a GSLS student and Radio Life Sciences team member Zuzanne Altmann

Link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1kF3LfPHEq0KJHUSKA1Id7?si=eb3c568a30bb4eab&nd=1

April 26, 2021 / News, Research paper

No need for competition

During brain development signaling proteins guide traveling neurons and their axons. These proteins do so by binding the receptor on the cell membrane of the neuron. For a long time it was thought that when two different proteins are close to the receptor they compete for binding. However, we found that instead of competing for binding, two different proteins can both bind the receptor at the same time. When this binding occurs the receptor is turned off, meaning that the neuron turns insensitive to signals. Because we now better understand this mechanism we might be able to use this knowledge in the future to answer disease-related questions.

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)00234-8

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Vacancies

We welcome open applications from PhD candidates and postdocs.