The latest news from Lifelines

Prof. dr. Debbie van Baarle as new scientific director of Lifelines

We are pleased to share that Prof. Dr. Debbie van Baarle is our new Scientific Director as of September 1st. She succeeds Prof. Jochen Mierau, who left Lifelines on September 1, 2025.

Interview with Lifelines' general director Kaat van de Vyver

After an impressive career in healthcare, the new managing director of Lifelines, Kaat van de Vyver, has taken on a new challenge. Read about her vision for Lifelines in this interview.

Changes in the Lifelines Management Team

We are pleased to announce that Kaat van de Vyver has taken on the role of Managing Director as of 1 May 2025. At the same time, we are preparing for the departure of Prof. Dr. Jochen Mierau, who will step down as Scientific Director on 1 September 2025.

Multilingualism and Cognition: Exploring Cognitive Aging

How does speaking multiple languages relate to cognitive functioning in later life? Floor van den Berg, linguist and researcher, tackled this question using our Lifelines cohort.

Trynke de Jong new Manager Biosamples & Data Access at Lifelines

We are proud to announce the appointment of Trynke de Jong as the new Sharing Manager at Lifelines. Trynke started her career at Lifelines 6.5 years ago as project leader and has since played an important role in promoting scientific research and collaboration.

Add-on study: DAG5 into gut health

A selection of Lifelines participants will also be invited for an additional study on gut health: DAG5.

Add-on with a unique activity tracker

A new study will soon start using a small activity tracker placed on your thigh. The study is an initiative of Radboud UMC and is supported by the Heart Foundation and the Brain Foundation.

Changes in Lifelines fees for 2025

As of 2025, there will be a change in Lifelines rates. From January 1, 2025, the standard partner fees will apply again for researchers from RUG/UMCG. You have also been informed about this by RUG and/or UMCG.

Current health issues call for interdisciplinary collaboration

The Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health and Lifelines are organising the Lifelines Researchers Community Event on 10 October. The aim of the event is to promote interaction between researchers from different disciplines and exchange knowledge. Jochen Mierau, scientific director of Lifelines, looks ahead to the event.

High Prevalence of Lung Nodules in Northern European Nonsmokers

A recent study in Northern Europe found that lung nodules are prevalent in nearly half of nonsmoking men and over a third of nonsmoking women, raising concerns about lung health management in this traditionally low-risk group.

Synthetic Data: Lifelines in Collaboration with Syntho

Recently at Lifelines, we have been working on a new innovation to make our data more accessible for research while strengthening the privacy of our participants. Using synthetic data from Syntho, we can now generate a dataset that has the same statistical properties as the collected data, without including the exact data of our participants.

Innovative digital assistant: Lifelines and Aevai Health join forces!

Lifelines and Aevai Health are launching a brand new and innovative pilot project: a digital assistant that guides participants through self-measurement.

Lifelines opened its doors in UMCG for the fourth assessment

Lifelines opened the first location the fourth round of the long-term, Northern health study. A new location has been set up in the UMCG.

PharmLines Initiative: long-term detailed drug prescription

Lifelines and Certe join forces

The third assessment of Lifelines will start in October this year. To collect data and biomaterials for this assessment, Lifelines will collaborate with Certe: an organisation for medical diagnostics and advice in the north of the Netherlands. 167.000 Lifelines participants will be invited over a period of 5 years to visit a Certe location.

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