In the spotlight

2019 EAHAD Research Grants recipients announced

The objective of the EAHAD Research Grants is to foster pre-clinical and clinical research collaborations in Europe and to support scientific projects aimed at improving the care of patients with inherited and acquired bleeding disorders.

 

For the 2019 cycle, we received 16 applications of great quality and scientific interest from 11 European countries. These were reviewed by a committee and by subject matter experts. Following the final decision, two 2019 Research Grants recipients were announced during the last day of the EAHAD 2019 Congress. They are:

 

• Samantha Gouw, MD, PhD, from the Amsterdam University Medical Center, The Netherlands, for “Getting GRIP on Tolerance: The role of Fc Gamma Receptors in Immune tolerance to Protein therapeutics”.

 

• Nathalie Roussel, PhD, MSc, PT, from the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, Belgium, for “Towards a better understanding of ankle pain in haemophilia patients: A study examining the relationship between structure and function, taking pain mechanisms into account”.

 

Dr. Gouw’s project aims to clarify the underlining reason why strategies to get rid of the antibodies against protein drugs that impair effective treatment fail in many patients, and to find genetic factors that can be used to predict who will and will not get rid of these antibodies.

 

The goal of Dr. Roussel and her multidisciplinary group’s study is to evaluate the structural and functional status of affected ankle joints combined with the local and central pain condition in patients with haemophilia in order to better understand the complexity of ankle pain, since, while pain is very important for in many patients, pain assessment and treatment are not well developed in the haemophilia population.

 

We would like to congratulate both Dr Gouw and Dr Roussel whose forward thinking and innovative project ideas surely keep us optimistic for the future of haemophilia care. We look forward to the fruits of their efforts.

 

The EAHAD Research Grant application cycle runs from July to October of each year and winners are announced at the annual EAHAD Congress in February. For more information, please contact grants@eahad.org.

 

Details on previous Research Grant recipients can be consulted here