On January 29th 2026, stress researchers from all around the Netherlands and beyond gathered at the beautiful Trippenhuis in Amsterdam for the 7th edition of the annual Stress-NL symposium. The first stressor for many of the attendees came in the form of staggering 3 centimeters of fresh snow that had covered wide areas of the country and managed to derail (literally) and disturb the travel plans. However, almost everyone made it on time for the Welcome and Opening remarks, delivered by SiA consortium member and board member of Stress-NL, Dr. Mariette Boon. The topic of this year’s conference: Systems under stress.
This recap is written by Julius März, PhD student Erasmus MC.
Morning sessions
To kick things off, three researchers gave presentations of 20 minutes each under the headline: From Treadmill to Trouble: How Stress Shapes Resilience and Metabolic Health. Among them: SiA PhD candidate Robin Lengton (Erasmus MC). Her talk focused on Glucocorticoid sensitivity as a core connector of Stress, Obesity, and Cardiometabolic health. Dr. Janna Vrijsen (Radboud UMC) talked about Exercise as treatment augmentation strategy for depression. A strategy that was swiftly implemented by having all attendees perform 8 squats as a fail-safe method to decrease stress levels. People who had come by train only needed to perform 5 squads, as they had been through enough pain already.
Then it was time for the presentation of this year’s Ron de Kloet award winner Prof. Jonathan Seckl (University of Edinburgh). Under the watchful eyes of his long-term colleague and friend Ron de Kloet himself, he delivered some fascinating insights into his decades-long ground-breaking research in the field of stress neuroendocrinology. Truly a tough act to follow, but SiA PhD candidate Dennis Klose (Amsterdam UMC) took on the challenge. He gave a 3 minutes pitch presentation about his research into DNA methylation scores as bio-markers of Major Depressive Disorder. This presentation was developed together with other young researchers who had attended a Young investigator workshop the day before and who were given the opportunity to present their research ideas and results to a big audience.
Opening by dr. Mariëtte Boon
Ron de Kloet award winner Prof. Jonathan Seckl
Presentation by Robin Lengton
Afternoon sessions
My personal highlight (aside from the phenomenal lunch) came in the early afternoon with the presentations of Prof. Eus van Someren (Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience) and Dr. Hein van Marle (Amsterdam UMC) on the topic of Stress, Sleep, and the Science of Remembering. They showed some fascinating results on Insomnia as a core risk factor for depression and PTSD and how one can target stressful memories before going to sleep, to help the body put them into a less stressful context overnight. This year’s Marian Joëls Award (who was in the audience as well) was awarded to two researchers: Dr. Kubra Gulmez-Karaca (UMC Utrecht) and Dr. Sylvie Lesuis (University of Amsterdam). The committee noted that both had had children during their PhD and therefore can serve as a great example that having an excellent research career and a fulfilling family life must not be mutually exclusive.
Afterwards, my colleague from the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry department at Erasmus MC, Dr. Lisanne van Houtum, presented research from the Family Consortium on the impact of maltreatment on brain developments in High-Risk offspring. Finally, SiA member Dr. Bertus Jeronimus (University of Groningen) gave an outlook on Resilience during the life course and workplace. What stood out to me in his talk was the idea that the main cause for children who are experiencing maltreatment to develop stress-related disorders lay not in the intensity of high-arousal situations, but the lack of any low-arousal states. Finally, friend of the consortium Ceyda Ilhan (Erasmus MC) gave a pitch presentation about ‘Risk factors for Metabolic and Cardiovascular diseases in South Asian populations’ as part of the second Young investigator session. At the end of this exciting day of Stress research, there was some time left to chat, network, and enjoy vegan bitterballen together, before everyone successfully made their way home. The snow, that had become this day’s symbol for an external, uncontrollable stressor, had already melted away. I am looking forward to next year’s symposium.
Julius
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