As of May 1st 2023 hDMT has welcomed UMC Utrecht as a new partner of the hDMT Consortium. Jeffrey Beekman and Zsolt Sebestyén are the representatives in the hDMT Consortium Assembly.
In recent years, some UMC Utrecht researchers were already, indirectly, involved in hDMT through collaborations with colleagues at Utrecht University, who had already joined the consortium. UMC Utrecht is a medical center generating, testing, sharing, and applying knowledge on health, illness, and health care for the benefit of patients and society. In the UMC Utrecht Strategy 2020-2025 “Connecting Worlds”, ‘biofabrication & disease modelling’ are defined as key ‘accelerator’ technologies for the various strategic research programs (Brain, Cancer, Child Health, Circulatory Health, Infection & Immunity, Regenerative Medicine & Stem cells). UMC Utrecht recognizes that further collaborations within the Netherlands are needed to maximize the impact of these emerging technologies.
UMC Utrecht is leading in regenerative medicine, biofabrication and disease modeling using adult stem cells, and also includes associated ethical frameworks. There are many researchers with expertise on Organ-on-Chip technology, but also other stem cell models and the integration of such models in industrial or clinical infrastructures. At UMC Utrecht, there is a large stakeholder network, including regulators and companies. There is a strong collaboration with other partners (Hubrecht Institute, Utrecht University, Prinses Maxima Center) on the Utrecht Science Park. There is a mature structure for facilitating research and providing connections.
The representatives in the hDMT Consortium Assembly are Jeffrey Beekman (expert on the development and use of adult stem cell models in preclinical and clinical applications, and the mind behind the first organoid-based human disease model (cystic fibrosis)), and Zsolt Sebestyén (expert on various 3D models consisting of adult stem cells and other tissue components to study cellular communication and the possibility to modulate it for therapeutic use (especially in cancer)).
Jeffrey Beekman
Zsolt Sebestyén
