The ZonMw Off Road grant enables talented young (bio)medical and health care researchers to achieve new insights and unexpected breakthroughs. The awarded projects are fundamental, have a high risk profile and are not on the paved paths of research. Fifteen Off Road grants have been awarded, of which four went to reseachers of the Amsterdam Cardiovascular Sciences research institute.

Each year, early career researchers with an innovative and out of the box idea in fundamental medical and/or health research can apply for the ZonMw Off Road grant of €100,000. This year, four ACS researchers received the Off Road grant to test the hypothesis behind the concept/idea:

Molly O'Reilly (Exp. Cardiology) will study the role of neuronal dysfunction in the development of arrhythmias in catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT), a rare inherited heart disease associated with life-threatening arrhythmias in relatively young patients.

Anke Tijsen (Exp. Cardiology) will investigate whether it is possible to replace part of the LMNA gene, which would allow the correction of not 1 but 40 mutations.

Marten Hoeksema (Medical Biochemistry) aims to resolve the cytokine-specificity paradox by determining at which sites the DNA is activated by the signalling substances.

Auke Otten (Physiology) will study the role and therapeutic potential of lncRNAs in skin wounds, thereby paving the way for lncRNAs as a rejuvenation therapy for age-related diseases.

Source: ZonMw