VU Amsterdam is proud of:
How do phages kill dormant bacteria? of molecular microbiologist Yuval Mulla and Coen Kuijl of Amsterdam UMC.
If you take a bus, you probably want the driver to be awake. Similarly, viruses that infect bacteria - called phages - were long thought to only function when bacteria are active. However, recent studies have shown that some phages can kill dormant bacteria, and our own findings suggest this ability is widespread. We now plan to investigate how this surprising process works and use that knowledge to engineer improved phages capable of targeting hard-to-treat infections. This research could lead to new treatments for diseases like urinary tract infections and tuberculosis, which often recur when dormant bacteria survive antibiotic treatment.
Lighting up the brain: Tracking inflammation with new imaging tools of Johanna Stéen of Amsterdam UMC.
Neuroinflammation is linked to many brain diseases, but the role of a protein called ACKR3 is complex. It may either protect the brain or contribute to damage, depending on the disease. To better understand its function, we will develop radiolabeled molecules that bind to ACKR3 and make it visible in brain scans using positron emission tomography. This will allow us to study the function of ACKR3 in the living brain. Our goal is to clarify its role in neuroinflammation and support the development of more targeted treatments for brain diseases.
RESCUE: The Resilience of Evacuation Strategies on Compromised and Unreliable Evacuation-infrastructure of econometrist Pascal Wissink.
Climate change calls for a new approach to disaster management. Natural disasters are increasingly causing disruptions to infrastructure, hindering the evacuation operations that rely on them. The availability of infrastructure in the wake of a natural disaster is often characterized by spatial dependencies: the probability that a road or shelter intended for evacuation purposes becomes inaccessible is likely correlated with the probability that roads or shelters in its vicinity are also rendered inaccessible. Despite the impact of such cascading effects on evacuation planning, they are currently largely ignored in the design of optimization models for evacuation strategies. This limits the effectiveness and viability of the evacuation policies derived from these models.
This project develops new optimization models and solution approaches for robust and adaptable evacuation decisions on infrastructure threatened by correlated disruptions. The developed plans are explicitly stress-tested for resilience against infrastructure failures induced by flash floods using various flood simulations in the Netherlands. Additionally, the project investigates how deviant behavior of evacuees, driven by differences in risk perception and risk preferences, affects the performance of evacuation plans. By directly integrating results from existing flood models into the evacuation models, this project provides both scholars and policymakers with tools and insights to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of evacuation plans.
Read about the other awards on the NWO website