News

News

• Gene therapy promotes nerve regeneration Jan 18, 2019

  Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and the Leiden University Medical Center have shown that treatment using gene therapy leads to a faster recovery after nerve damage. By combining a surgical repair procedure with gene therapy, the survival of nerve cells and regeneration of nerve fibers over a long distance was stimulated for the first time.

• Evidence on microplastics does not yet point to widespread risk, say Europe’s top scientists Jan 11, 2019

  The best available evidence suggests that microplastics and nanoplastics do not pose a widespread risk to humans or the environment, except in small pockets. But that evidence is limited, and the situation could change if pollution continues at the current rate. This is the verdict of a group of experts, nominated by academies across Europe, in an Evidence Review Report published on 10 January 2019 by SAPEA.

• Research into population health wins Distinguished Lorentz Fellowship Jan 10, 2019

  Ecologist Hal Caswell has been awarded the Distinguished Lorentz Fellowship 2019/20 for his research on mathematical models of population dynamics. 'The models we currently use only take very basic aspects of health into account. But in order to cope with challenges such as aging and climate change, we need more sophisticated models.'

• Insomnia has many faces Jan 08, 2019

  Researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience revealed that there are five types of insomnia. This finding was published on 7 January 2019 by The Lancet Psychiatry. A commentary in the journal stated that the finding could be a new page in the history of insomnia, promoting discoveries on mechanisms and interventions.