Spring 2021 has brought changes in the hDMT organization. Mieke Schutte, managing director and member of the hDMT Executive Board, has left hDMT after five years. Mieke has been vital for building up the hDMT consortium in its current form, by stimulating scientists from academia and companies to collaborate and develop Organ-on-Chip models. As crown on her work the 4.8 M euro SMART OoC project was awarded by NWO to a multidisciplinary team of 10 researchers affiliated with hDMT and 26 private partners. The prestigious grant enables standardization as the next step in maturation and acceptance of Organ-on-Chip technology. We are very grateful to Mieke for her tremendous contribution and will express this in a personal way with all hDMT partners during the hDMT Consortium meeting in November this year.
We are very glad that Berend van Meer, scientist at Leiden University Medical Center and business developer at Organ-on-Chip Center Twente (OoCCT), will join us in the hDMT Executive Board. Berend is already very active in many hDMT activities, including the setup of hDMT INFRA, the Organ-on-Chip infrastructure in the Netherlands with two pilot centers, OoCCT and iPSC & OoC Hotel at LUMC, becoming the blueprint for the other centers. We very much look forward to working together with Berend and continuing the further development of the hDMT consortium and OoC technology.
We are also delighted that Utrecht University has joined hDMT. The complementary expertise of this new partner, in particular in the field of organoids, is a welcome addition to the hDMT consortium.
In spite of the pandemic, the year 2021 promises to become a very good year in science with many new projects, opportunities for collaboration and events. We are confident to meet you at national and international meetings, but certainly at the online EUROoCS 2021 conference on 1 and 2 July.
Take care,
Executive Board hDMT
Christine Mummery and Janny van den Eijnden-van Raaij
