Vidi-grants for research on organ perfusion, microbiome and rare genetic diseases

Cyril Moers: Using a pump to store donor kidneys almost indefinitely 

Moers is working with a team on a new method to preserve donor kidneys for much longer than is currently possible. They are building an advanced organ perfusion system to continuously flush a newly developed liquid through the kidney, which remains liquid while the organ is cooled to well below zero. ‘I look for the point where metabolism in the kidney stops, to freeze the kidney’s quality, so to speak,’ Moers says. ‘With this technique, safe long-term “storage” of donor organs could finally become a reality.’   

But why would you want that? 'With current methods, a donor kidney can be safely preserved for a maximum of about 15 hours. If we could store organs for weeks or even months, we would have much more time to select the best recipient and we can plan kidney transplants well in advance. Then you no longer have to operate in the middle of the night. As a result, fewer complications may occur, and patients get better access to kidney transplantation.'  

Ranko Gacesa: How do microbes in our body evolve? And how does it affect our health? 

Our bodies are inhabited by trillions of microbes that aid us in digestion, protect us against hostile microbes, and perform other functions critical to our health. Like all living things, the microbes in our body change – evolve – over time. Yet this evolution, and its impact on our health, remain largely unknown. In this project, researchers will investigate evolution of gut microbes within individuals over the time-period of 15 years to answer which microbes change over time, how they change, and how their evolution differs between healthy individuals and patients with chronic gastrointestinal diseases. ‘If we know which bacteria remain in the gut of healthy people over a long period of time, we may be able to develop new probiotics in the future for people with impaired gut health,’ says Gacesa. 

Marc Jan Bonder: Decoding rare genetic variation

Many different rare genetic diseases exist and they collectively impact a significant portion of the population. Advances in DNA sequencing technologies have recently improved the diagnostic yield for these conditions. However, our limited understanding of what genetic variation outside of genes does, combined with our still limited understanding of what different isoforms of genes do, makes further diagnostic gains a challenge. In this project, I will systematically investigate how DNA differences affect isoforms, and I will utilize this knowledge to identify which DNA alteration is responsible for rare diseases in more patients.