On September 24th, 2024 Ulgu Arslan-van Bergen successfully defended her thesis entitled ‘hiPSC-derived 3D cardiac microphysiological systems that can integrate immune and vascular components’ at Leiden University under the supervision of promoter Prof. Christine Mummery and co-promoter Dr. Valeria Orlova. During her PhD journey Ulgu explored culture conditions and their effects to incorporate human induced pluripotent stem cell derived macrophages in 3D cardiac microtissues; and endothelial cells to form vascularized and perfusable 3D cardiac microtissues on chips. The thesis discusses and compares current state-of-the-art 3D microphysiological models with respect to their applications, readouts, limitations and possible implementation for their future use. In addition, it establishes static microtissue or perfused Organ-on-Chip models with an emphasis on their potential to study microenvironmental cues, cellular crosstalk, disease modelling and drug testing in cardiovascular research.
