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NWO has awarded funding of 760,000 euros for research into the mathematical modelling of thin polymer films. In the PRONTO project, mathematicians at Utrecht University and computational chemists at the University of Amsterdam will work together with non-academic partners to develop a new generation of models for materials science.

Methane contributes significantly to climate change. Emission reduction of this greenhouse gas has shown high potential in quickly slowing down global warming. Utrecht University researcher Hossein Maazallahi recently founded his start-up Maaz Maps to accelerate methane emission reduction at the global scale.

Studying the DNA of organisms that live today can increase our understanding of how life evolved billions of years ago. For his PhD research, Julian Vosseberg delved into the DNA of contemporary organisms to find out how complex cells like those of plants, fungi and animals once evolved from simple, bacteria-like cells.

Seven Utrecht University Humanities scholars have been awarded a grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) in the Open Competition SGW programme.

Patients whose drug treatment is matched to their DNA, suffer 30 percent fewer serious side effects. This is the result from a study published by a team of international researchers, including Vera Deneer , associate professor of clinical pharmacology at the Utrecht Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS) and her colleague Heshu Abdullah-Koolmees , in The Lancet.

Dogs with osteoarthritis benefit from a new treatment: an injection that delivers a painkiller with a long-term effect. This is proven to be safe and effective. It is possible that the treatment can also help humans in the future. Marianna Tryfonidou , Professor at the Utrecht University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, collaborated for this research with academic partners and companies.

Nowadays, it is quite common to develop and use code and software for research. Graduate Keven Quach wanted to know how FAIR the code and software is developed by researchers at Utrecht University. So he dived into GitHub, an online platform where you can develop, manage and publish code and software.

Some cold ice shelves in Antarctica, which researchers initially thought would remain stable over the coming centuries, turn out to be vulnerable in the event of further global warming. This conclusion results from a study led by Utrecht climate researcher Melchior van Wessem. When ice shelves break up, they do not contribute to sea level rise, because they are already floating in the ocean.

Studies at patients' homes instead of at the hospital may improve access to clinical research. According to Amos de Jong, PhD candidate at Utrecht University, improved accessibility is necessary to find sufficient and representative study participants for clinical research aimed at developing new medicines and medical devices.

Biologists provide first evidence of chimpanzees communicating about a cultural practice. Chimpanzees communicate with each other to coordinate a specific type of grooming. Biologists from Utrecht University noted this behaviour using extensive video observations, making it the first reported evidence that communication and cultural behaviour are closely intertwined in chimpanzees.

Utrecht University has appointed Stefan Rüdiger as Professor of Protein Chemistry of Disease. Chemist Rüdiger and his group aim to tackle diseases that are caused by protein misfolding, such as Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease. They focus on how chaperones, proteins that aid other proteins to fold into their proper shape, control protein quality.

By growing in colonies of different sizes, the fungus Aspergillus niger is more effective in breaking down cellulose and more resistant to stress. Microbiologists from Utrecht University report these findings in an article in the scientific journal mBio. Aspergillus niger is widely used for the production of protein mixtures, which play an important role in the manufacturing of, for instance, biofuels or bioplastics.

Every human body starts out as one single cell: a fertilized egg. This cell develops into all kinds of cell types: skin cells, liver cells, blood cells. Although these cell types look and function differently, they all contain exactly the same DNA. Tuncay Baubec and his research group try to understand how the same genetic code is used to build the more than 200 different cell types in our body.

Agriculture is one of the leading causes of human induced land-use change globally. Our food consumption and production, especially in industrialised countries, is thereby damaging the planet.

This week, the biodiversity conference takes place in Montreal, after it was postponed by Covid-19 in the Chinese city of Kunming last May. That postponement was worrying, says Professor of Land Use and Biodiversity Merel Soons , because time is running out for nature conservation. The reason our biodiversity is declining so much is well known.

When tectonic plates collide and thrust over each other and cause an earthquake, a tsunami can occur. That should not happen in an earthquake where the plates slide past each other. And yet that was exactly what happened on 28 September 2018 near Palu Bay (Sulawesi, Indonesia), mere minutes after an earthquake of that second category.

Today is International Mountain Day. Mountains are of immeasurable value in our daily existence. Not only does 15% of the world's population live in mountainous areas, mountains also contain some 50% of biodiversity hotspots and provide half of humanity with fresh water. At Utrecht University, we do a lot of research on water management in these important mountain areas.

Unique genetic research shows that the Ashkenazi Jewish community has been a virtually closed group since the 14th century. The international and interdisciplinary Genetic Legacies project examined DNA from the teeth of dozens of medieval and contemporary members of the community from the German city of Erfurt.

Joint press release by Utrecht University and Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) A circular bioeconomy can dramatically rein in the fast-growing plastic sector's climate, pollution, and resource consumption impacts.

A vast amount of money is involved in Alzheimer's disease research. However, scientists have been unable to achieve substantial clinical results in recent decades. In a recent analysis of the situation, Utrecht University historian of science Bert Theunissen and his colleague from Erasmus University Rotterdam Noortje Jacobs now argue that a deadlock has developed that makes progression unlikely.