Category Archives: News

Pieter van Altena will focus on 3D microenvironments for neuropsychiatric disorders

Pieter van Altena recently obtained a MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering with double specialization in High Tech Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at TU Delft. There, he will join the group of Dr. Angelo Accardo as PhD student from December 2021. His research will focus on the design, fabrication and characterization of 3D cell-instructive microenvironments to study the mechanobiology of iPSC-derived neural and glial cells coming from healthy subjects and patients affected by autism spectrum disorders. The PhD trajectory of Pieter is part of a recently granted NWO ENW-M-2 project in collaboration with Vivi Heine from VU Amsterdam. In his free...

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Isabel Tamargo starts PhD project on the microbe-intestine-liver axis in drug metabolism

Isabel Tamargo started as a new PhD candidate under the direct supervision of PIs Prof. Jingyuan Fu and Dr. Sebo Withoff at the Department of Genetics, University of Groningen in October 2021. The name of her project is: “Personalized in-intro model to study the role of the microbe-intestine-liver axis in drug metabolism”. In vitro models to perform individualized drug testing are highly needed to aid personalized medicine. In this project, Isabel will generate liver and gut models in an organ-on-a-chip system derived from hiPSCs. Subsequently, by means of pharmacokinetic assays, the metabolic profile of different drugs, previously selected, whose metabolism...

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Victoria Palasantzas for Liver-on-Chip

PhD student Victoria Palasantzas joined the group of hDMT PIs Prof. Jingyuan Fu and Dr. Sebo Withoff at the Department of Genetics, University of Groningen in October 2021, to work on the liver-on-chip system in a project named: Establishing the molecular mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of short-chain fatty acids in the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. In this project, she aims to develop fatty liver-on-chip disease model system to study the NAFLD/NASH phenotype and the potential beneficial properties of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) for fatty liver disease. The project aims to advance the established liver-on-chip model by complexifying...

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Clementine Boutry starts research on biodegradable materials for scaffolds, electrodes, actuators and wireless circuits for Organ-on-Chip at TU Delft

Clementine Boutry recently joined the ECTM Laboratory in the Department of Microlelectronics at TU Delft as a new Assistant Professor. She will work on biodegradable technologies, more specifically soft biodegradable materials with tailored mechanical, electrical and magnetic properties. They will be used to design scaffolds, integrated electrodes, actuators and wireless circuits, entirely made of biodegradable materials, for organs-on-chip. She received her PhD from ETH Zurich (Switzerland), working on biodegradable conducting polymer composites and their integration into passive resonant circuits for wireless implant applications, under the guidance of Prof. Christofer Hierold. She then worked in industry and joined Philips Research in...

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Zofia Komar works on prediction of breast cancer chemotherapy response

On October 1, Zofia Komar started as PhD student in the group of Dik van Gent at Erasmus MC, Department of Molecular Genetics, in collaboration with Agnes Jager (Medical Oncology) and Adriaan Houtsmuller (Optical Imaging Center). She will be working on the KWF-funded project ‘Prediction of Breast Cancer chemotherapy response in patients by determination of chemosensitivity in tumor tissue ex vivo’.

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Shriya Rangaswamy joined NOCI for Brain-on-Chip research

Shriya Rangaswamy started her PhD with the Electronic Components, Technology and Materials (ECTM) Department at TU Delft from October, 2021. She received her Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from TU Delft in March, 2021. She collaborated with BI/OND Solutions as a part of her Master Thesis, where she focused on developing a proof-of-concept for a Heart-On-Chip device with integrated TiN micro-electrode arrays insulated by silicon nitride and embedded in a thick PDMS micro-fluidic membrane. During her Bachelor’s, she majored in Biotechnology and worked closely on tissue culture experiments to study the behaviour of cancer cells. Her diverse background in biology coupled...

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Qais Akolawala started on 3D engineered brain cancer microenvironments for proton radiobiology

Qais Akolawala came from India to the Netherlands to pursue his MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering at TU Delft in 2019. He always had a latent interest in biology and cellular studies. His MSc thesis on ‘3D Engineered Glioblastoma Microenvironments’ has been a way to work on this interest, and this amazing collaborative subject. He will now continue ahead as a junior researcher within the group of Dr. Angelo Accardo at TU Delft in the context of an NWO-XS project to assess the efficiency of proton therapy on glioblastoma cells grown within biomimetic architectures. Qais is an avid reader and...

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Contribution of Mohammad Jouybar to new book on Organ-on-a-Chip

Mohammad Jouybar, researcher in Microsystems section at Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e), has contributed to the 2nd chapter of a new book on Organ-on-Chip. This chapter introduces standard techniques and a novel method for including porous membranes within microfluidic devices. These porous membranes can be used to study tissue barriers within OoC applications. The book Organ-on-a-Chip was recently published in Springer Nature Protocols, part of the Methods in Molecular Biology book series (MIMB, volume 2373). This book, which was edited by Marco Rasponi, is written in the format of the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series. Each chapter includes...

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Two exciting events on NXTGEN HIGHTECH and Biomedical Production Technologies. Register now!

The ‘Groeifonds’ proposal NXTGEN HIGHTECH will be submitted this month. One of the six domains of NXTGEN HIGHTECH is ‘Biomedical Production Technologies’ and is being coordinated by Berend van Meer on behalf of hDMT. This domain aims at large scale production of Labs-on-Chips, Organs-on-Chips, Artificial Organs and Cell Production Equipment, in which industrial standardisation and qualification are indispensable. The consortium of partners from science, industry and regulators, responsible for this domain will celebrate the submission of this application in two different events. Webinar ‘Opportunities in Lifescience Technologies for the hightech ecosystem’ (in Dutch) Organizer: High Tech NL Date: 9 November 2021,...

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EMA implements new measures to minimise animal testing during medicines development

EMA is putting in place special support to developers to replace, reduce and refine animal use for the development, manufacturing and testing of human and veterinary medicines. The Agency is promoting these three principles – replace, reduce and refine; commonly referred to as 3Rs – through EMA’s Innovation Task Force (ITF). This action will facilitate the development and implementation of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) that are in line with the European Union legislation on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes. For more information see the EMA Website. source: https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/ema-implements-new-measures-minimise-animal-testing-during-medicines-development

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