The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded Vidi grants to 26 talented researchers from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Amsterdam UMC (AMC location). The VIDI funding amounts to a maximum of €850,000 per project. This will allow the researchers to develop their own research line and establish or further expand their own research groups.
In this round, NWO is honouring 149 researchers from the following research domains: Science (ENW), Applied and Engineering Sciences (AES), Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), and Healthcare Research and Development (ZonMw).
Dr Jianbo Zhang (Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences) with his research: iGuMI: An infant Gut-Microbe-Immune-on-a-chip model to decipher crosstalk between bacterial colonisation, mucosal barrier integrity and macrophage function in early life.
The first 1000 days of life are crucial for microbiome development, immune system formation and long-term health. However, yet we still lack a full understanding of how intestinal bacteria shape immunity. Zhang’s project aims to develop a novel miniature gut-microbe-immune-on-a-chip (iGuMI) model that mimics the infant gut to unravel how “good” andc”bad” bacterial colonisation influence infant intestinal function and immune development, identify key bacterial species and metabolites that drive these effects. Ultimately, this research will inform the development of new interventions (probiotics or drugs) to boost infant immune health, prevent infections, and improve pediatric medicine. The study ties in perfectly with MetaHealth’s Work Package 4, and it is expected that there will be considerable synergy between the two projects.
