Jingyuan Fu and Merel Keijzer win Ammodo Science Award 2023

Professors Jingyuan Fu and Merel Keijzer are the winners of an Ammodo Science Award for fundamental research 2023. Both of them receive a cash prize of 350,000 euros which they can use in the coming years to explore new avenues of fundamental scientific research.

The influential gut microbiome

Professor of Systems Medicine Jingyuan Fu (1972) studies the gut microbiome in relation to disease and health, focusing in particular on complex diseases such as obesity and cardiovascular disease. She impressively demonstrated, for example, that the gut microbiome can be manipulated by both dietary interventions and certain drugs. This makes the microbiome an important starting point for disease prevention and treatment.

Further reading: Jingyuan Fu wins the 2023 Ammodo Science Award

Multilingualism as therapy

Merel Keijzer (1980) is Professor of English Linguistics and English as a Second Language. She researches how learning a new language contributes to healthy ageing. To do so, she uses innovative and multidisciplinary research methods and works closely with neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists. Keijzer has shown that people who are multilingual, and who still actively used their languages, generally showed better cognitive functioning. In particular, frequent switching between different languages seems to be able to compensate for ageing processes in the brain, such as mild memory loss.

Further reading: Language as a form of therapy

About the Ammodo Science Award

The Ammodo Science Award for fundamental research The Ammodo Science Award for fundamental research is meant for outstanding, internationally recognized mid-career scientists working in the Netherlands who received their PhD between five and 15 years ago. More information can be found on the Ammodo website. On this site you can also read more about the laureates Jingyuan Fu and Merel Keijzer.