All news

May 7, 2026

Highlights of the spring 2026 consortium meeting 

The Spring 2026 consortium meeting on April 13 was built on the successful format of the Fall 2025 meeting, which received very positive evaluations from participants. We also introduced the Best MetaHealth Poster Award.

We kicked off with three interactive sessions:

(1) Inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations 

Rob van Dalen (WP4) provided an update on the interdisciplinarity workshop that was organized earlier this year by and for junior scientists.

He then, together with Carla Ferreira Rodrigues (WP2), facilitated “speed‑dating” sessions in which participants paired up with someone they were not already collaborating with and were challenged to adopt each other’s perspective in relation to the project.

This exercise encouraged openness to new ideas and fostered potential new collaborations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2) Personalized prevention versus Collective Public Health

Led by Bastiaan Krom (WP4) and Denise Duijster (WP2), the session introduced principles of personalized and collective public health and examined their alignment with our project.

 

 

 

 

 

(3) Online media & MetaHealth

Chaired by Martinette Streppel (WP5) and Vivek Sheraton (WP3), this hands‑on workshop focused on exploring ways to enhance our outreach. We worked with a simulation tool that calculated the size of the target population reached based on participants’ input. Feedback on the tool will be used to further refine and tailor our outreach strategies.

 

Martinette Streppel                                                   Interactive working in groups

Networking & Posters

Coffee and lunch breaks offered plenty of time for networking and exploring 11 posters, all of which were prepared by our talented junior scientists. In the afternoon, each poster was pitched to the full audience, leading to insightful discussions.

Posters & presentations:

1. WP6: Lea Hohendorf: “Voices that shape care: Using multi-stakeholder insights to develop inclusive eHealth for socioeconomically disadvantaged families” 
2. WP2: Susanne Pinto: “MetaHealth data availability and how to request access” 
3. WP2: Nicholas Pucci: “Growing Together: Previously undescribed bacteria found in developing Amsterdam infants’ microbiomes” 
4. WP2: Iuri Mimoso: “Longitudinal research on oral and gut microbial ecology in infant health and disease” 
5. WP4: Sofia Jimenez Ochoa: “2-4-month-old vs. 6-8-month-old infant oral microbial population; effect in biofilm formation and interaction with the host in an in vitro reconstructed human gingival model.” 
6. WP3: Tu-Ky Ly: “How Do Early-Life Exposures Shape Metabolic and Oral Health? A Multiscale Exposome-Host-Microbiome Modeling Framework” 
7. WP3: Shivam Kumar: “Multiscale Spatio-Temporal Model for Oral Biofilm and GuMi Twin” 
8. WP3/4: Coen Berns: “The shortest route through the complex infant microbiome” 

(under title: Function-based selection of infant gut synthetic communities from metagenomes and isolates)  

9. WP3: Lana Peters: “Modeling early-life gut microbiome and immune system development: implications for immune-mediated disease risk and potential interventions” 
10. WP3: Karla Muller: “Lost potential: Will looking at the potential functional trends of the infant microbiome be the key to understanding the development?” 
11. WP1: Soely Mandrone: “Conversation, Negotiation, Relation – Dynamics of Epistemic Injustice in Dutch Child Healthcare”

First MetaHealth Poster Award 

New to this consortium meeting was the introduction of the Best Poster Presentation Award. The jury consisted of members of the advisory board and the project leader, and the MetaHealth Spring 2026 Poster Award was presented to Nicholas Pucci.
The day concluded with dedicated opportunities for collaboration within the work packages, while the project leader and project manager met with the MetaHealth advisory board for the biannual project review. 

                                                         

Lili Genee from advisory board hands out the award to Nicholas Pucci.            Nicholas Pucci thanks the jury for the Poster Award.