Category Archives: News

An in vitro model of osteocytes remodeling activity in chronic kidney disease

Within the Open Competition Domain Science-XS a grant was awarded to Silvia Mihaila from Utrecht University for an in vitro model of osteocytes remodeling activity in chronic diseases. In the remodeling process, old bone breaks down and new bone gets built. Osteocytes, the major cells residing in bone, are the master regulators of bone remodeling. In certain diseases, such as chronic kidney disease (CKD), bone remodeling is disturbed resulting in weak and brittle bones. However, little is known on why and how osteocytes are affected by the disease. In this project we propose the development of an in vitro model...

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Next-generation Organ-on-a-Chip model for research and drug evaluation in fibrotic diseases- FibOoC

Researchers at UTwente and Radboudumc have received a grant for studying fibrotic disease within the Open Technology Programme (OTP) from NOW. The overall aim of the project, called FibOoC is to develop an in vitro human OoC model for fibrotic diseases built from crucial patient-derived cell types, and including essential elements known to drive the disease progression such as dense extracellular matrix, biomechanical cues, and hypoxia. As a case study, we will consider systemic sclerosis as a prototypical fibrotic disease. In this project, we will successively build a generic FibOoC model, generate and characterize patient-specific FibOoC models for systemic sclerosis...

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Mimicking the Biology of Engineered Protein and mRNA Nanoparticle Delivery Using a Versatile Microfluidic Platform

The teams of Prof Roland Brock and Wouter Verdurmen, PhD, Department of Biochemistry, Radboudumc, have recently implemented a versatile microfluidic platform that can be broadly employed to investigate drug delivery. Microfluidic systems are often designed specifically for certain applications. However, this is not always practical, especially in laboratories that are not specializing in the design of such systems. The researchers demonstrate that a single platform can be used both for specific targeting of carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) on tumor cells as well as serve as the basis for a bone-on-a-chip platform for the evaluation of mRNA delivery from colloidal biomaterials....

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Thesis Thijs Pasman (UTwente): Poly(trimethylene carbonate)-based membranes for biomimetic lung epithelial-endothelial models

On December 8th 2021 Thijs Pasman successfully defended his thesis ‘Poly(trimethylene carbonate)-based membranes for biomimetic lung epithelial-endothelial models’ at the University of Twente. The research was performed in the research group of Biomaterials, Science and Technology at the University of Twente under the supervision of Prof Grijpma, Prof Stamatialis and Dr Poot.         Dr Thijs Pasman Lung diseases are one of the most common causes of death. Moreover, there is a rise of lung-associated viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, which has caused the Covid-19 pandemic. Because of this, there is an unprecedented relevance of and need for lung...

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Funding for Body Barriers: a mucosa-blood-brain organ-on-chip platform

Sue Gibbs and Albert Feilzer, together with Elga de Vries and Vivi Heine (Amsterdam UMC) have been awarded with a TTW grant from NWO (850.000 Euro) to generate a multi-organ platform called Body Barriers. Here they will study if and how potentially neurotoxic substances from medical oral devices breach the neuroprotective blood-brain barrier to reach the brain and induce inflammatory and neurodegenerative effects, leading to cognitive decline. In this project, organ-on-chip technology will be used to create a vascularized multi-organ platform that will mimic the barriers between the mouth and the brain and will incorporate stem cell derived brain organoids....

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Turbo Grant for Growing Bone on Chip

Nico Sommerdijk (Radboudumc) and Pascal Jonkheijm (UTwente) have received a TURBO grant (80K) to develop an organoid-on-chip model to study patient-specific mechanisms of genetic bone disorders.                       Nico Sommerdijk (left) and Pascal Jonkheijm (right) Organ-on-chip and organoids (or ‘mini-organs’) are promising models for investigating physiological and pathological processes in tissue. In bone research, however, the development of these models is lagging behind. With this TURBO project, Pascal Jonkheijm (UT) and Nico Sommerdijk (Radboudumc) aim to change that. The aim is to examine the healthy bone formation, specifically the role of...

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Rapid Prototyping of Organ-on-Chip Devices Using Maskless Photolithography

Dhanesh Kasi and colleagues have developed a cleanroom-free microfabrication procedure for rapid prototyping of Organ-on-Chip and microfluidic devices. Organ-on-Chip (OoC) refers to biomimetic microdevices that contain cell culture compartments and/or microfluidic channels and (human) cells. They may also include integrated sensors for functional measurements, or valves to control fluid flows. Chips are usually produced in cleanroom facilities that contain specialized equipment for microfabrication. A fast and low-threshold method for fabricating simple OoC and microfluidic devices is beneficial to reduce prototyping times, and lowers barriers for labs to perform OoC research. A simplified and cleanroom-free microfabrication procedure by using a digital...

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Pim de Haan defends PhD thesis on gut-on-a-chip work

On Friday, November 19th, 2021 Pim de Haan successfully defended his PhD thesis titled ‘Microfluidic digestive systems for drug analysis’ at the University of Groningen. He conducted his PhD research in the Pharmaceutical Analysis group at the Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy, with Prof. Sabeth Verpoorte as thesis advisor and dr. Klaus Mathwig as co-adviser. Dr Pim de Haan and Prof Sabeth Verpoorte. His research, which was funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), focused on the development of gut-on-a-chip devices for drug and toxicology testing. In collaboration with Wageningen University and a team of industrial partners, a modular system...

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River BioMedics Raises Seed Investment to Progress its Cardiovascular Disease Programs

River BioMedics, a drug discovery company using advanced 3D human cardiac models, announced the seed funding of 1.8 million Euro to progress its pipeline of cardiovascular disease targets and compounds. River BioMedics addresses the high unmet medical need of cardiac diseases with a focus on heart failure. The financing round was co-led by FIRST fund, managed by BioGeneration Ventures (BGV), KIKK Capital and Oost NL. River BioMedics was founded in 2020 by Marcelo Ribeiro, Lisanne Blauw and Robert Passier, as a spin-out from the University of Twente’s department of Applied Stem Cell Technologies. The team has built a suite of...

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Save-the-date: UMD-hDMT seminar on Stem cell models for Metabolic Disorders

Stem cell models offer a promising perspective to study the tissue-specific pathophysiology of Metabolic Disorders and novel treatments. Analysis of metabolites and understanding the metabolism in such models is still a challenge that needs to be solved. In this symposium, we will discuss advances in stem cell models and metabolism and how they can be integrated. Date: April 13th, 2022 Location: Radboudumc Contact person: Dirk.lefeber@radboudumc.nl Depending on the circumstances, the symposium will be live/hybrid or online. More details will follow soon. United for Metabolic Diseases (UMD) is a unique, innovative and multidisciplinary collaboration with the common goal to perform innovative...

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