funding

We are very grateful for the continued support from the Dutch CampagneTeam Huntington foundation (CTH), which has just announced that they will fund our new project grant on Huntington’s disease (HD). This is a project together with our longstanding collaborator Prof Amalia Dolga (at the GRIP institute of the University of Groningen). It is an extension of an earlier project that the CTH funded, and which paid for the PhD research project of Dr. Greeshma Jain. She published several papers from her research on the structures and toxic properties of HD-related protein aggregates and how they are modulated by aggregation […]

We are excited to have received a Development Award grant from the international Barth Syndrome Foundation, enabling us to continue and develop our work studying the molecular mechanisms of this inherited lipid metabolism disease. This is in a sense a follow-up to our recent collaborative publication on this topic. In our paper in Nature Metabolism we used magic-angle-spinning NMR spectroscopy to probe a protein-lipid complex implicated in Barth Syndrome. The NMR analysis showed it to be highly dynamic, with enhanced mobility triggered by the lyso-cardiolipin lipids that are increased in BTHS. Moreover, we showed that it was feasible to probe […]

Starting later this year, the RUG ssNMR group will be of the newly funded MOlecular-Scale Biophysics Research Infrastructure (MOSBRI) network. This EU-wide consortium enables ambitious integrative multi-technological studies of biological systems at the crucial intermediate level between atomic-resolution structural descriptions and cellular-scale observations. MOSBRI provides European academic and industrial researchers with a one-stop shop Trans-National Access to the latest technological developments in advanced spectroscopies, hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, real-time kinetics and single molecule approaches. More information can be found on the MOSBRI website, and also on our own MOSBRI page. This infrastructure network is supported by EU funding and features resources in many EU countries (and […]

Update: this position has been filled! 26/02/2019: A new fully-funded PhD position in the lab is available in our project studying the structure of polyglutamine amyloid proteins involved in Huntington’s disease. This research position will focus to a large extent on continuing and expanding the structural ssNMR methods that we previously reported in: • Hoop et al. Huntingtin exon 1 fibrils feature an interdigitated β-hairpin-based polyglutamine core. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2016 Feb 9;113(6):1546–51. This will involve the development, testing and application of advanced ssNMR structural measurements. Aside from the ssNMR development work, structural measurements will be integrated with mechanistic and […]

More information to follow later, but we just posted the official advertisement for a new research technician with a NMR/SSNMR background. For details see here: https://www.rug.nl/about-us/work-with-us/job-opportunities/overview?details=00347-02S0006SAP The deadline is Feb 14th, 2019. Applications should be done via the above URL.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have awarded the Van der Wel group a new R01 grant to support our research into the molecular mechanisms of mitochondrial apoptosis. Mitochondrial apoptosis is a vital cellular process required for proper development and health. However, malfunctioning of this process, e.g. undesired up- or down-regulation, plays a key role in diseases ranging from cancer to neurodegeneration, including Huntington’s Disease. In this project we  investigate pivotal processes that occur early on in the apoptotic pathway, and thus may present important targets for medical intervention. A key focal point is on the role of mitochondrial membranes, and in […]

The new NIH-funded 750MHz solid-state NMR instrument has now been delivered to the Department of Structural Biology NMR facility. It is currently being installed and configured. NEW: Photos of the installation process are available in this online gallery. This state-of-the-art instrument adds exciting new capabilities for advanced MAS ssNMR to the facility, such as the inclusion of new ‘very-fast’ MAS probes. The spectrometer will facilitate and enhance our ongoing studies of protein misfolding and aggregation in Huntington’s Disease, and studies of the protein-lipid interactions underlying cell death and neurodegeneration.