Both Alexandra and Ricky received travel grant awards to join the EMDS in beautiful Vienna! Here they presented their research to dozens of macrophage experts!

Marten Hoeksema received a Bertus Kemp Stipendium from the " Genootschap ter bevordering van Natuur-, Genees- en Heelkunde ". The aim is to study kinase activity differences in macrophages activated with various cytokines. The grant will be used for this research as well as a work visit to the lab of collaborator dr. Emiel van der Vorst at the university of Aachen.

On Friday, 1st of November, Sebastian Hendrix defended his PhD thesis cum laude describing his work on the role of SPRING in regulating the SREBP pathway and lipid metabolism. The work included in the thesis describes how SREBP is required to promote the maturation of S1P, a protease that is required for the first cleavage-activation event of SREBPs. When SPRING is absent, SREBP cleavage cannot occur and as a consequence the SREBP pathway cannot be activated. The thesis positions SPRING as a core component of the SREBP activation machinery, the only new determinant added in the last 2 decades.

Congratulations to Dr. Sanne Lith on successfully defending her PhD thesis last Friday! Wishing Sanne all the best in her next chapter!

Mees graduated from the University of Applied Sciences (HBO) Inholland in Amsterdam. Congratulations!!! He performed his final internship in the Hoeksema lab and will now continue there as research technician!

The Hoeksema lab is looking for a PhD student to join their team!

The Dutch Heart Foundation has awarded a Senior Scientist Dekker grant to Marten Hoeksema. Dekker grants are personal research grants for talented scientists that are awarded annually. With the grants, the Heart Foundation enables researchers to take the next step in their careers. The Dekker grant helps them to set up and expand their own research line in the field of cardiovascular research

The Zelcer lab's study describing the structure of SPRING and S1P is out. This was a great collaboration with Daniel Kober (UTSW) who is a biochemsitry and CryoEM wizard. This study provides th structural basis for the role SPRING has in proteolytic maturation of the S1P zymogen, and why SPRING is required for S1P-mediated cleavage of the SREBP transcription factors. Enjoy the reading and let us know what you think of this: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-50068-8