Prof Aalt Bast 
Dr Guido R.M.M. Haenen 

UM, the Universiteit Maastricht is the youngest university in the Netherlands and growing rapidly. At the time of writing there are 11,500 students and 3, 000 staff. The UM has seven faculties: the Faculty of General Sciences, the Faculty of Arts and Culture, the Faculty of Economic Sciences, the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Health Science, the Faculty of Psychology and the Faculty of Law. Next to that there is the University College Maastricht. Since the establishment of the university, scientific research has been characterized by a matrix organization. This was arranged largely around a limited number of socially relevant themes and further concentrated in research institutes and schools.

The Nutrition and Toxicology Research Institute Maastricht (NUTRIM), the research institute involved in HEALTHGRAIN, is an interfaculty research institute of the Faculties of Health Sciences and of Medicine of Maastricht University in co-operation with the University Hospital Maastricht. Within NUTRIM, 15 biomedical, clinical and behavioural-science departments co-operate in the implementation of scientific research in the fields of nutrition and toxicology and in the education of PhD-students. The total number of scientific staff participating within NUTRIM is approx. 210 including some 100 PhD students. The research conducted within NUTRIM is focused on nutrition and toxicology.

Nutrition research is performed on the effects of nutrition, nutritional components and nutritional behaviour on the health of man. Special areas of interest are: clinical nutrition, metabolic pathways of nutritional compounds. The multi-disciplinary approach of research within NUTRIM also results in research of a social-scientific and an epidemiological character. Toxicology research is performed on the health effects of nutrition. The final goal of this research is to accurately determine the risk and benefit of food ingredients on health. In view of the social interest in the research performed within NUTRIM, the research is for a substantial part of an applicative nature which expresses itself in an extensive co-operation with government and industry.

Several state of the art facilities are available including a stable isotope research centre, a proteomics centre, a genome centre and a facility dedicated to perform free radical research. The latter facility has, among other techniques, the ability to perform electron spin resonance analysis. A major line of research is directed towards the role of free radicals in deceases and (patho)-physiological conditions including several chronic diseases (like COPD, diabetes and hepatic diseases). In these diseases free radical species are involved in onset and progression. The objective of the research is to elucidate the protective role of antioxidants and to optimize antioxidant therapy.

Website: http://www.unimaas.nl/