NWO-MetaHealth - Newsletter 7

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Als u deze nieuwsbrief liever in het Nederlands leest, klik hier.

Dear reader,

In this first half of the fourth year the program runs according to the plan.

In 2026 additional personnel was hired: in addition to those already welcomed in December 2025, we now welcome here: Elies Wolf and Dionne van Tatenhove.

On April 13, 2026, we held our consortium meeting where we had three interactive plenary sessions and all junior scientists presented a poster about their work. We introduced the Best Poster Presentation Award, which was won by Nicholas Pucci.

In this newsletter you find items about a grant for FUNGI, the results of the first Technasia-projects, a directory of child-friendly dental practices and a new digital newsletter on the microbiome, Egija in Osaka, Japan, and of course about our five new publications. We now have eleven.

In 2026, the consortium member Panel concluded its activities. At the same time, we established a new partnership with Tandarts.nl, which will support communication and dissemination efforts in exchange for MetaHealth-related content for their website.

On our site we like to signal relevant current events in society. This time about sugar consumption and about an Amsterdam ban on meat advertisements.

Also see the progress of each WP on our site.

Enjoy reading.

News

Grant for FUNGI-NL, a national platform for FAIR fungal research in the Netherlands
Within the Thematic Digital Competence Center (TDCC) for Life Sciences and Health (LSH), a grant totaling €400,000 has been awarded to a consortium for the development and standardization of fungus-focused -omics applications, with the cooperation of researchers of MetaHealth WP2 and WP4. Read more

First Technasium-MetaHealth Projects Successfully Completed
At ISW Hoogeland, Sogol Abbaszadeh, Jessie Strang, and Anna Duin investigated how to improve the brushing habits and oral health of children aged 10 to 14. Based on questionnaires, a literature review, and insights from behavioral change research, they developed the “Look in the Mirror” campaign in collaboration with researcher Lea Hohendorf. Read more

New online magazine: AmsterBiome – Amsterdam-based Microbiome Online Magazine
To understand more about how the different ecosystems are connected to each other through their microbes, several junior researchers from MetaHealth have started a Microbiome-related Online Magazine. The platform aims to serve as a network ecosystem between researchers in the field and societal players and microbiome science enthusiasts. Read more

Directory of child-friendly dental practices
MetaHealth has created Network Maps of child-friendly dental practices that are open to collaborating with the child health clinics in their immediate vicinity in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, Amsterdam Southeast, Amsterdam North, and Zaandam-East. Read more

About MetaHealth in Osaka
During her visit to the Conservative Dentistry Conference in Yokohama, Japan, Egija Zaura also visited Osaka University Dental School. On June 1st, 2026, she delivered a talk about our program to an international audience of residents and research staff and had an engaging discussion on Inclusivity and access to oral healthcare in Asian countries. Read more

Highlights of the spring 2026 consortium meeting
The Spring 2026 consortium meeting on April 13, built on the successful format of the Fall 2025 meeting, received very positive evaluations from participants. We kicked off with three interactive sessions:  (1) Inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations (2) Personalized prevention versus Collective Public Health (3) Online media & MetaHealth. We also introduced the Best MetaHealth Poster Award, which was won by Nicholas Pucci. Read more

Publications

A system approach to improve oral health
A new publication in the Journal of Dental Research by MetaHealth researchers  from WP2 calls for a new way of thinking about oral health promotion. In the paper, the authors use the Action Scales Model, a systems thinking framework that helps identify where meaningful change can be achieved. Read more

Digital and blended lifestyle interventions for preschool-aged children and families with a low socioeconomic position and the general population: Scoping review.
This scoping review by Lea Hohendorf and colleagues from WP6 was published June 5, 2026 in Journal of Medical Internet Research. Read more

Unique ecology of co-occurring functionally and phylogenetically undescribed species in the infant oral microbiome
Nicholas Pucci and other researchers from WP2 investigated how infant oral bacterial communities develop during their first six months of life, with the aim to understand which microbes colonize, how they establish themselves and why they succeed together. They published this in PLoS Computational Biology 22(3): e1013185. Read more

Integrating microbiome data visualization into FAIRDatabase using edge functions
In a study published in the International Journal of Data Science and Analytics, researchers Roman van Eldijk, Shivam Kumar, and Vivek Sheraton M from WP3 introduce a visualization module for FAIRDatabase, an open-source platform designed to handle protected biological data. Read more

Oral-heart axis from pregnancy and postpartum: maternal oral microbiota relates with cardiac reverse remodeling
Researchers from WP2 with partners from Porto University in the lead published in the Journal of Oral Microbiology "Oral-heart axis from pregnancy and postpartum: maternal oral microbiota relates with cardiac reverse remodeling". Read more

Upcoming events

Monday November 16, 2026 Autumn consortium meeting MetaHealth

Monday April 29, 2027 Spring consortium meeting MetaHealth

Our agenda

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