Topic: Biomedical research

Why do some BRCA2 tumors eventually stop responding to chemotherapy? Researchers at Erasmus MC discovered how these tumors are still able to repair their DNA damage and how they evade the effects of chemotherapy.

Erasmus MC has established a new company dedicated to developing a new form of immunotherapy. This new therapy — a personalized cancer vaccine — is intended for patients with pancreatic cancer.

Scientists at Erasmus MC have discovered that von Willebrand disease, the most common inherited bleeding disorder, is not always caused by a genetic defect in the von Willebrand factor gene. Defects in the mechanisms that control secretion of this hemostatic protein can also cause von Willebrand disease, they show.

Picking up a cup or putting one foot in front of the other: even the simplest movements require a lot of calculations from our brains. Scientist Zhenyu Gao wants to know how this works in the brain. He challenges traditional ideas in the process. ‘Brain parts are not separate lego blocks.’

Scientists at Erasmus MC have succeeded in adding immune cells to organoids of the intestine and liver. This makes these mini-organs even more suitable for research into viral diseases, without the need for laboratory animals.

The discovery of a new syndrome brings an end to the search for a diagnosis for hundreds of patients with an unexplained developmental disorder. “A diagnosis means recognition and acknowledgment.”

Scientists at Erasmus MC have succeeded in keeping slices of human brain tissue alive in the laboratory for at least two weeks. This opens new doors for research, for example, into viruses that infect the brain.

Perhaps not surprisingly, two eyes are better than one when mice face acute danger. New research conducted by an international team of scientists from the Netherlands and Australia shows how visual information from both eyes converges in the mouse brain and how this contributes to survival behavior.