Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), The Netherlands

The Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) is a large university teaching hospital in which highly specialized patient care is linked to basic and clinical research. Research in the Department of Anatomy and Embryology at LUMC is focused on cardiovascular development and disease models based on human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs)(groups Dr. Valeria Orlova and Prof. Christine Mummery).  Immediate interests are on developing biophysical techniques for characterization and functional analysis of cardiovascular cells from hPSC with the ultimate aim of understanding underlying disease mechanisms and drugs for treatment through bioassays. In addition, over several past years, we have developed efficient protocols to differentiate different sub-types of endothelial cells (ECs), pericytes (PCs), vascular smooth muscle cells (vSMCs), as well as myeloid cells, such as monocytes and macrophages. Through collaboration with clinicians in Leiden and Utrecht and engineers in University of Twente (UT), we are currently implementing methods for creating synthetic 2-D and 3-D normal and (genetically) diseased vascular and myocardial tissue.

Role in the project: 3D Vessels-on-chip, Heart-on-chip, hiPSCs, hiPSC-derived Endothelial Cells, hiPSC-derived Cardiomyocytes, hiPSC-derived Inflammatory Cells