European grant of €1.5 million for ERIBA researcher Eugene Berezikov

Eugene Berezikov of the University Medical Centre Groningen has received an ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grant grant of €1.5 million for his research. He is a researcher with the European Research Institute for the Biology of Ageing (ERIBA). The ERC Starting Grants are specifically intended for young and promising research group leaders who have put together their own research team and designed their own research programme. His research for ERIBA involves the study of the relationships between stem cells and aging.

Eugene Berezikov studied Life Sciences at the Novosibirsk State University (Russia) where he specialized in molecular biology. He obtained his PhD there in 2000. He then spent many years working at the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht where he was a research leader. This year he joined the ERIBA institute in Groningen. ERIBA is the institute for research on ageing of the UMCG and the University of Groningen.

Berezikov’s research group is developing the flatworm Macrostomum lignano as a new model organism for research on stem cells, regeneration and ageing.

The ERC Grants are intended to further reinforce excellent research teams. They are awarded by ERCEA, the European Research Council Executive Agency.

UMCG and healthy ageing

The UMCG is building on the future of health, with the focus on Healthy Ageing – growing older in a healthy and active way. Healthy ageing lasts a lifetime and starts at conception – parents pass on not only their genes but also the related risks and chances of a healthy life or of contracting a disease later in life. Lifestyle, eating patterns and environmental factors all influence the development of health. However, new knowledge is needed about the exact influence of these factors and their relationship to each other. The UMCG is collecting this knowledge via longitudinal population studies like LifeLines and through the ERIBA research institute, where researchers are conducting fundamental research into ageing processes. The UMGC is working together with the University of Groningen, with universities of applied science, local governments and the business world in the Healthy Ageing Network Northern Netherlands (HANNN) to turn the north of the Netherlands into a top European region in the field of healthy ageing.

Note for the press

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