By Anneloes Opperhuizen – Photography by Hans van Kooten It has been 6 years since Dutch chronobiologists in the Netherlands had gathered for a scientific meeting. The OnTime consortium ran at that time during which annual meetings were extended towards national meetings. After the end of OnTime, national gatherings did not take place, until now. Initiated by the BioClock consortium, we organized the first annual Dutch Chronobiology Meeting last April 17th in Leiden. With 120...

On May 9th, 2023, the Dutch Society for Sleep-Wake Research organizes a symposium titled ‘Chronobiology meets sleep: from animal to human research’. The symposium will take place Tuesday the 9th of May from 13:00- 18:00 PM. During the meeting the BioClock founders (Joke Meijer, Laura Kervezee) and other chronobiology researchers will provide a translational perspective on recent and upcoming developments in the field of chronobiology. There will be a panel discussion...

PhD candidate Hannah Broeckx provides us with an update of her first year. Insect-predator interactions in the spotlight By Hannah Broeckx I am one year into my research on the effect of artificial light at night (ALAN) on insect-predator interactions. What an interesting process it has been so far! ALAN has been shown to impact organisms in a variety of ways. Through species interactions, these effects can cascade throughout the whole ecosystem, amplifying the total impact...

PhD candidate Evelien Castrop has started a year ago on her project in which she studies plants; the base of all ecosystems. Are they affected by nocturnal artificial light? She wrote us an update: “The Luminescent Landscape: Understanding the Impact of Artificial Light on Plants” by Evelien Castrop Is ALAN changing the way our wild plants grow? If so, then how?  The project I have been working on for the past year focuses on investigating the effect of artificial light...

PhD candidate Sander Buddendorf has worked for the past year on his project to understand the bats in urban environments. Are they affected by nocturnal light exposure? That is what he tries to find out in his project. An update on his first year. Understanding the urban bat By Sander Buddendorf The bat is a mysterious flying nocturnal mammal. Many people I talked to in the “field” – in major Dutch cities such as Rotterdam and The Hague – come to me and tell me about bats in...

In the fall of 2022, PhD candidates Koen Vink and Tamara Brouwers started with their BioClock project at the RIVM. Supervised by prof. Debbie van Baarle and prof. Jacco Wallinga, they investigate the interaction between the circadian clock and the immune system. More specifically, they look at the timing and dosing of vaccinations on the immune response and burden of disease. With epidemiological and modelling work (Koen) and preclinical and clinical studies (Tamara), in the next few...

PhD candidate Danielle Crowley started a year ago on her project in WP3.1. It is time for an update on her findings and plans. Keeping rhythm by Danielle Crowley Fish, like humans, follow light/dark (L/D) cycles of around 24 hours. These cycles or circadian rhythms as they are otherwise known, are responsible for initiating and maintaining an array of behavioural and physiological patterns including breeding, migration, and hormone expression. This is achievable due...