Dr. L. Kistemaker awarded at meeting of the Royal Physics Society

During the 1786e meeting of the Royal Physics Society the Van Swinderen Prize has been awarded yesterday. This price is awarded every year to the best summary of a PhD thesis published at the Faculty of Mathematics & Natural Sciences or the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Groningen in that academic year. Four graduates were nominated including Dr. Loes Kistemaker, postdoc in the research unit Molecular Pharmacology. We congratulate Dr. Kistemaker with winning the second price for which she received € 1000.

Dr. Kistermaker defended her thesis titled Acetylcholine beyond bronchoconstriction; A regulator of inflammation and remodeling on March 06 this year and was rewarded the classification "cum laude". The studies Dr. Kistemaker described in her thesis have revealed that acetylcholine contributes to airway inflammation and remodeling in asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) specifically via M3 muscarinic receptors. In addition, she provided the first evidence that inflammation in COPD is in part mediated by the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This suggests that patients with asthma or COPD might benefit from M3-selective antagonists to a much larger extent than previously appreciated.