Due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the health care capacity in the Netherlands is expected to come under severe pressure in the coming period.

The best synbio projects, including iGEM teams, have one thing in common: cutting edge science in the light of carefully considered societal needs.

Researcher Dr Guus Velders of RIVM has made the Nature top-10 list of 2016. This means that, according to Nature, he was one of the 10 most influential scientists in 2016.

Scientific research by RIVM’s Guus Velders stood partly at the basis of the HFC global climate agreement.

Without global agreement on the use of HFCs, their contribution to the greenhouse effect may increase sharply to 10 percent of that of CO2 by 2050. The current contribution is less than 1 percent.

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are potent greenhouse gases used in refrigerators and air conditioners and are released primarily at the end of the life-span of these products.