We are excited to share that the January 2026 episode of the Stroke Alert Podcast features an interview with Fabiano Cavalcante and Prof. Charles Majoie on their article published in Stroke, “Acute carotid stenting for tandem lesions in patients randomized to endovascular treatment with or without thrombolysis.”

Launched by Stroke in 2021, the monthly Stroke Alert Podcast begins each episode by posing key takeaway questions from featured articles in the current issue of the journal. This is followed by a brief summary and analysis of these articles, as well as an interview with the author of one of these featured articles or with one of the Stroke editors.

To listen to the episode, please visit https://www.ahajournals.org/do/10.1161/podcast.20260114.701495.
Visit https://www.ahajournals.org/str/podcast to stream the podcast and listen to previous episodes online.

We are very pleased to announce that another round of CONTRAST2 calls for young talent research travel grants is now open. This call is for PhD students and postdocs working in the acute stroke research field and are affiliated with CONTRAST.  
 
This grant, with a maximum budget of €10.000, can fund a visit to a renowned research group in- or outside Europe for a two-month period, during which the applicant can set up a collaboration and data sharing project to complement their research project. 
 
The application deadline is March 31^st, 2026. This call is the first in a series of yearly calls this year to stimulate young investigators to expand their horizon and become acquainted with international collaboration in research. 
 
For more information and for proposal submission, please visit this webpage:  
https://www.contrast-consortium.nl/young-talent-research-travel-grant/

An upcoming PhD defence within the CONTRAST2 community. We congratulate the soon to be Dr. with this major achievement!

Wednesday December 17th, 2025, 10:30, Erasmus MC, Prof. A. Queridozaal
Promovendus: Aladdin Taha
Titel: Translational aspects of reperfusion in acute ischemic stroke
Promotoren:
– prof. dr. D.J.G.M. Duncker
– prof. dr. D.W.J. Dippel
Co-promotoren:
– dr. H.M.M. van Beusekom
– J. Bobi i Gibert

A recently publication in JAHA, https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/JAHA.125.043984, from CONTRAST2 WP3A – MeVO. Congratulations to all authors!

Title: Time to Endovascular Treatment and Clinical Outcome in Acute Ischemic Stroke With M2‐Segment Occlusion

Authors: Sterre Dassen, Adriaan van Es, Bob Roozenbeek, Rob van de Graaf, Yvo Roos, Charles Majoie, Elyas Ghariq, Nyika Kruyt, Urs Fischer, Robert van Oostenbrugge, Wim van Zwam, and Julie Staals.

What Is New?
In contrast to acute ischemic stroke patients with a large vessel occlusion, we found no significant association between delays in endovascular treatment and clinical outcomes in patients with M2 occlusions.

What Are the Clinical Implications?
Future studies should determine whether specific subgroups of patients with an M2 occlusion, based on imaging characteristics or collateral status, may still benefit from faster time to treatment.

A recently published paper in STROKE from CONTRAST2 WP3C – IRIS. Congratulations to all authors!

Title: Acute Carotid Stenting for Tandem Lesions in Patients Randomized to Endovascular Treatment With or Without Thrombolysis: Results From the IRIS Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis

Authors: Fabiano Cavalcante, Kilian Treurniet, Johannes Kaesmacher, Manon Kappelhof, Roman Rohner, Pengfei Yang, Jianmin Liu, Kentaro Suzuki, Bernard Yan, Theodora van Elk, Lei Zhang, Maarten Uyttenboogaart, Wenjie Zi, Imad Derraz, Yongwei Zhang, Chrysanthi Papagiannaki, Hal Rice, Pengfei Xing, Kazumi Kimura, Peter Mitchel, Philipp Bücke, Changwei Guo, Vincent Costalat, Romain Bourcier, Daan Nieboer, Hester Lingsma, Jan Gralla, Urs Fischer, Yvo Roos, and Charles Majoie, on behalf of the IRIS Collaborators.

On Thursday September 25th, the CONTRAST2 young talents gathered in Utrecht for an educational afternoon program around the theme of “The post-PhD journey: building your career after PhD”, including two alumni talks and a workshop. Afterwards they enjoyed some well deserved pizza and drinks.
It was great to see so many of our hard-working PhD students coming together.

A recently published paper in JAMA Neurology from CONTRAST2 WP3C – IRIS. Congratulations to all authors!

Intracranial Hemorrhage in Patients With Stroke After Endovascular Treatment With or Without IV Alteplase: An Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis.

Zhou Y, Zhang L, Cavalcante F, Suzuki K, Treurniet KM, Yan B, Mitchell P, Bush S, Fischer U, Kaesmacher J, Gralla J, Strbian D, Rohner R, Kappelhof M, Roos Y, Majoie C, Zi W, Yang Q, Zhang Y, Matsumaru Y, Kimura K, Ye X, Yang P, Liu J; IRIS collaborators.JAMA Neurol. 2025 Aug 11:e252610. doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2025.2610. Online ahead of print.PMID: 40788598

There are two upcoming PhD defences within the CONTRAST2 community. We congratulate these soon to be Doctors with this major achievement!

Vrijdag 19 september 2025 10:00 uur Agnietenkapel, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Promotie Drs. Leon Rinkel, Amsterdam UMC
Titel: Cardiac CT in acute ischemic stroke
Promotoren:
– Prof. dr. J.C. Coutinho
– Prof. dr. C.B. Majoie
Co-promotoren:
– Dr. R.N. Planken
– Prof. dr. Y.B. Roos

Woensdag 1 oktober 2025 14:00 uur Aula Universiteit van Amsterdam (Lutherse Kerk)
Promotie Drs. Lucas de Vries, Amsterdam UMC
Titel: Revisiting CT perfusion for acute ischemic stroke with deep learning
Promotoren:
– Dr. E. Gavves
– Prof. dr. H.A. Marquering
Co-promotoren:
– Dr. B.J. Emmer
– Prof. dr. C.B. Majoie

August 2025

In April, we opened the second round of the CONTRAST2 Young Talent Travel Grants, which gives young CONTRAST researchers the opportunity to go abroad for two months to establish a collaboration.

We congratulate the following people:

• Govert van der Gun – Erasmus MC – WP8
  Using Real-World Data and Advanced Causal Inference Methods to Address Open Questions in Stroke: Beyond the RCTObservational Study Dichotomy – at Harvard School of Public Health, Boston Massachusetts
• Sterre Dassen – Maastricht UMC – WP3a 
  Impact of baseline imaging parameters on treatment effect in EVT for medium vessel occlusion stroke – at the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland
• Xi Li – Erasmus MC – WP9 
  Prediction Modelling to Optimize the Use of Endovascular Treatment after 6-24 hours of Acute Ischemic Stroke – at Stanford University Medical Centre, California 
• Yasmin Sadigh – Erasmus MC
  The Anatomical Distribution and Variations of Deep Cerebral Perforating Arteries Post-Vascupaint Perfusion in Human Cadavers – at the University of Valencia, Spain 

We look forward to seeing the results of their projects!

Next year in April, we will open another call for these Young Talent Travel Grants and encourage all young researchers with an idea for a project to submit their proposal.