Pluripotente stamcellen bij hartziekten

Christine Mummery (hDMT partner LUMC and hDMT Executive Board Member) has contributed to the year book of Diligentia, De Koninklijke Maatschappij voor Natuurkunde. Some of the misunderstandings about what stem cells can and cannot do, and how they are generated in the lab are discussed.

The article is in Dutch and can be downloaded via the following link here.

“Een impressie van ‘jouw lichaam-op-een-chip”, credits to Berend van Meer, Mees de Graaf, and Claire Glashan.

Summary of the lecture: The human heart is very different from that of a mouse. But the mouse is still the most used lab animal to treat heart disease study in the search for new drugs. The mouse heart is not only smaller, but it beats 500 times a minute instead of 60 times like in humans. Since 2007 we can make pluripotent stem cells from each individual through “reprogramming”. These stem cells can transform into every cell in the human body, so also cardiovascular cells. This is a new chance to understand the human heart and its associated system of blood vessels, both in healthy people as well as in patients with heart disease. Prof. dr. mummery discussed how this is being done in the lab. Some of the misunderstandings about what stem cells can and cannot do, were discussed.

Source: Natuurkundige Voordrachten 2020-2021, nieuwe reeks no. 99, uitgave Koninklijke Mij voor Natuurkunde ‘Diligentia’ can be downloaded via www.natuurwetenschappen-diligentia.nl. For the yearbook see here.

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