Personal grant for new UIPS PIs

Two new PIs of UIPS have recently been successful in obtaining prestigious personal grants.

Bas van Ravensteijn from the Pharmaceutics division has received an ERC starting grant. In this news item from 5 September 2023 Bas explains his proposal POLYPATH. He will study how we can control the formation of RNA or DNA-loaded nanoparticles. This control results in well-defined particles which allows Bas and his team to elucidate what factors are crucial in optimizing the therapeutic potential of these nanopharmaceuticals.

On 20 September 2023, Kelly Stecker from the Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Division received an ENW-M grant from NWO to “Crack the code to cell death”. Kelly studies which post translational modifications inside a tumor cell control if the tumor can evade cytokine attack or succumb to it. Immunotherapy is very effective, but also very unpredictable. This research could improve our fundamental understanding of immunotherapy resistance and lay the foundation for personalized immunotherapy interventions.