To disseminate her IDEAL EU project, Eline Slagboom organises a conference at October 12-14 2015 in Leiden about "Connecting development and late life health: Epigenetic mechanisms and beyond". Please find more details at the conference website.

The department of Molecular Epidemiology is happy to announce the PhD defense of Yolande Ramos. The title of her thesis is: Osteoarthritis, a degenerative disease of the articular joints

Molepi will be presenting at the OsteoArthritis Research Society International (OARSI) annual world congress on Osteoarthritis 2015, held in Seattle, WA. No less than five abstracts submitted by our Osteoarthritis research group were acknowledged for presentation whereas Ingrid Meulenbelt will present as invited speaker.

Professor Hein Verspaget (LUMC) launched a BBMRI-NL work group Sample Integrity that will document the prerequisites for reliable research using biomedical biobanks. The work group consists of 10 member of which Marian Beekman is one.

The dept. of Molecular Epidemiology is proud to announce the thesis defence of Ir. Erik van den Akker, which will take place next Wednesday February 18th at 11.15 AM, in the Academic Building, Rapenburg 73, Leiden. The title of his thesis is "Computational Biology in Human Aging - An Omics Data Integration Approach".

After the thesis defence....

After publication of the epigenetics data of the Hungerwinter famine study in Nature Communication by Elmar Tobi, Roderick Slieker and Bas Heijmans. Several newspapers and weblogs paid attention to our research.

The department of Molecular Epidemiology proudly announces the publication of Elmar Tobi and Bas Heijmans in Nature Communications.

Please read our press release below:

People born during the Dutch Famine have altered regulation of growth genes

And may have helped these individuals to survive as a fetus. 

Individuals conceived and born in the severe Dutch Famine, also called the Hunger Winter, may have survived this horrendous period of World War 2 by making adaptations to how active their DNA is.  Genes involved in growth and development were differentially regulated. Researchers at the Leiden University Medical Center, Columbia University and Harvard University just published an article in Nature Communications.

The department of Molecular Epidemiology is involved in one of LUMC's 7 profiles of Medical Research, i.e. Ageing. We are happy to announce that the website of Medical Research profile Ageing is online since October 9!

Some time ago, but nevertheless quite interesting, Eline Slagboom and many internationally collaborating ageing research collegues were interviewed by EOS magazine.

On Friday 28 November, BBMRI-NL will celebrate its 5th anniversary in the Stadsgehoorzaal in Leiden. Five years in which much has happened: BBMRI-NL has funded 94 Complementation projects, 12 Rainbow projects, and 3 ELSI-projects; set up a biobank catalogue; struck up close collaborations with PSI and LifeLines; and hosted three editions of Connecting Biobanks and one of HandsOn: Biobanks. Up to date, BBMRI-NL funded projects have yielded some 150 publications.
To highlight these accomplishments, as well as to present our plans for the future, we cordially invite you to the fourth edition of Connecting Biobanks. You will find out about BBMRI-NL2.0, the next phase in our existence; learn how the current Rainbow projects facilitate future research; view posters highlighting the Complementation projects; discuss ELSI matters; and of course, catch up with the biobanking community. We have put together a programme that does justice to all of BBMRI-NL’s achievements and sheds some light on the way forward.