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May 2025

Dear iCNS participants,

A very warm welcome to all of you!

We are very excited to bring you our very first newsletter with an overview of the latest iCNS-related developments.

During most of 2024, together with Angelica, Naomi and the Executive Board, we worked hard to put together our Consortium Agreement and to finalize the paperwork before officially launching iCNS. We celebrated its start with an incredible Kick-Off meeting at theatre De Rode Hoed in Amsterdam’s city centre in early December. It was a full house, so there were plenty of chances to meet and connect with each other. We got inspired by the plans shared by our work package leaders, and talks by external guest speakers Shane Liddelow, Uwe Grether, Nikos Daslakis and Casper Hoogenraad. The interview with a depressed patient by psychiatrist Dr. Eric Ruhe was an another impressive highlight. A photo impression of this inspirational day can be found below.

Since then, several PhD projects have been prepared, integrating chemistry with neuroscience. The hiring process for these PhD candidates will commence in the coming months at our partner institutes. We are delighted to announce that the first PhD students and Postdoc have already started in Leiden and Groningen. We’re excited to have you at iCNS and look forward to your future contributions!

Moreover, we are saddened to share that Angelica has left iCNS as head of Team Management Support. She has done an outstanding job in helping launch the consortium, playing a crucial role in completing the Consortium Agreement on time and organizing the Kick-Off meeting. Angelica, we could not have done it without you! We had a farewell gathering at Science Park, where she received some gifts on our behalf. We thank you very much for all you did for iCNS and wish you all the very best with your new position at TNO!

We are also pleased to introduce Sabina van der Zanden as the new head of iCNS Project Management. Sabina is currently part of the ICI gravitation program in Leiden and will begin her role within iCNS on July 1^st.

Inge Huitinga, Paul Lucassen & Mario van der Stelt

Award of Chan Zuckerberg Grant

We’re thrilled that the labs of Inge Huitinga and Inge Holtman were awarded €300,000 from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to revolutionize neuropathological research in the Netherlands Brain Bank. This funding will enable the use of cutting-edge AI, including Large Language Models, to transform the analysis of medical records and imaging data. https://i-cns.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9153e18ffe39dd83583a27335&am...

Exciting New Additions to Our Team!

Meet the brilliant minds who've recently joined us at LU and UMCG.

Explore their stories below and keep an eye out for further additions via LinkedIn. New hires at UMCG (https://i-cns.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9153e18ffe39dd83583a27335&am...) New hires at LU (https://i-cns.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9153e18ffe39dd83583a27335&am...)

** A word from the first iCNS PhD student ------------------------------------------------------------

Hi everyone!

I'm Lars van Abswoude and I recently started my PhD in the Molecular Physiology group under supervision of Mario van der Stelt. The main goal of my PhD is to develop celltype-specific PROTACs for various targets within the CNS.

As the first PhD candidate at iCNS, I got the wonderful opportunity to attend the Kick-off meeting in Amsterdam last November. It was amazing to see how many different disciplines came together to work on the noble goal of unraveling the molecular mechanisms behind CNS related diseases. In the spirit of teamwork, we're now collaborating with Monique Mulder from Leiden University Medical Center. She's an expert on the ubiquitin-proteasome system and her in depth knowledge of this system will aid us in the biological aspects of developing a cell type specific PROTAC platform. I'm truly honored to be part of this multidisciplinary and cooperative consortium. The real strength of iCNS lies in our teamwork. By combining our expertise, we will efficiently tackle complex CNS challenges together. I'm looking forward to contributing to and witnessing iCNS's journey as it evolves.

Lars van Abswoude

** Angelica’s Goodbye Party at the UvA ------------------------------------------------------------

If you have any items to share for future newsletters, don’t hesitate to send them my way! Presentations, interviews, meetings, published papers, or anything else within the iCNS framework would be welcome.

Best wishes,

Naomi van der Most https://i-cns.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9153e18ffe39dd83583a27335&am... https://i-cns.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9153e18ffe39dd83583a27335&am... mailto:contact@i-cns.nl https://i-cns.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9153e18ffe39dd83583a27335&am...

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