AGEM directors looking back
Undoubtedly, 2021 was a turbulent year in view of the continuously changing COVID-19 situation in the Netherlands. From the roll-out of the national COVID-19 vaccine campaign and relaxation of COVID-19 restrictive measures in summer, to the outbreak of the Omicron strain and a nationwide complete lockdown in winter: the unpredictability of COVID-19 made it difficult for the Amsterdam Gastroenterology Endocrinology Metabolism research institute (hereafter: AGEM) to organize events or to plan ahead. “Of course we had already mastered valuable lessons in 2020”, says prof. dr. Stan van de Graaf, co-director of AGEM, “that allowed us to organize several valuable and well-attended events online in 2021”. Next to its own online seminars, the Tager lecture series, AGEM joined forces with others to help organize online lectures such as the ImmonoMetNet series and the Grand Rounds in Digestive diseases. “What I appreciate about these events, is their intrinsic interdisciplinary approach”, says Van de Graaf, “which makes these initiatives a valuable addition to the lectures and seminars AGEM was already organizing before”.
“that allowed us to organize several valuable and well-attended events online in 2021”
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This also has bearings with the directors’ goal to increase the institute’s collaboration with external partners in 2021. “Several research groups already have a very strong position in the national and international field”, Van de Graaf explains, “for instance prof. dr. Marc Besselink and more recently also dr. Rogier Voermans managed to make Amsterdam UMC a key player in the pancreatitis field by creating strong collaborative networks with other research centers”. The AGEM directors hope other research teams will be able to obtain such a strong position as well, and are currently assessing how they can most efficiently support this. Recalling this goal, Van de Graaf mentions that where AGEM may have been somewhat more inwardly focused in the first years after its inception, “in 2021, we have surely started to shift attention towards collaborating with our neighbors, both within Amsterdam UMC as well as outside”. The Dutch Translational Metabolism Conference (DMTC) series, initiated and co-organized by AGEM PI Riekelt Houtkooper and several PIs outside of Amsterdam, is an excellent example of a collaborative effort on a national scale. Further, AGEM and Amsterdam Infection & Immunity (AII) organized their first joint meeting to bring together researchers working in these fields, and AGEM and Cancer Center Amsterdam (CCA) jointly organized the HPBeter symposium, which already had strong ties with both regional and national hospitals.