Category Archives: Uncategorized

Research theme challenges gut liver

A Gut-on-Chip and a Liver-on-Chip, or the combination of both model systems on an integrated platform requires a careful considerations of the minimal organ functionality that needs to be emulated in vitro. For several reasons innovative experimental models are needed, for instance to: understand the course of intestinal and liver diseases Better understand the natural course of both intestinal and liver diseases. For instance celiac disease, Crohn disease and other inflammatory bowel diseases. Inflammatory liver diseases that include fibrotic processes are still not fully understood, and clearly lack robust human like in vitro models, hindering our current understanding of the...

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Summer around the corner

Many of you might already enjoy a nice summer break or will do that soon during the next weeks or months. Let’s hope that corona allows us to leave our computers and relax after a busy period with many online meetings. One of those meetings was the annual EUROoCS 2021 conference with more than 430 participants from 26 different countries, 6 keynotes, 40 lectures and 170 posters, thanks to the excellent organization and hosting by Maria Tenje from Uppsala University. hDMT researcher Ulgu Arslan from Leiden University Medical Center received the ‘Best Presentation Award’ for her talk about ‘Vascularized three-dimensional...

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Mieke Schutte (outgoing Managing Director of hDMT)

Why are you leaving hDMT? Since my arrival at hDMT in 2015 I have combined my 2-day position as its managing director with another position at the Lorentz Center. The combination of hDMT with the Lorentz Center has always been a natural balance. I believe in hDMT as an innovative and constructive research organization and I was therefore very happy to continue to be part of the hDMT management when I moved to manage the Mathematical Institute of Leiden University last year. However, it turned out that the Mathematical Institute requires my full-time commitment. I found it difficult to be...

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Welcome and farewell

Spring 2021 has brought changes in the hDMT organization. Mieke Schutte, managing director and member of the hDMT Executive Board, has left hDMT after five years. Mieke has been vital for building up the hDMT consortium in its current form, by stimulating scientists from academia and companies to collaborate and develop Organ-on-Chip models. As crown on her work the 4.8 M euro SMART OoC project was awarded by NWO to a multidisciplinary team of 10 researchers affiliated with hDMT and 26 private partners. The prestigious grant enables standardization as the next step in maturation and acceptance of Organ-on-Chip technology. We are...

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NWA-ORC grant for Virtual Human Platform for Safety Assessment

In the second round of the Dutch Research Agenda Program: Research along routes by Consortia (NWA-ORC) the project Virtual Human Platform for Safety Assessment receives a grant of 9.9 million euros for assessing the safety of chemicals and pharmaceuticals without using laboratory animals. hDMT is closely involved in the project, as are hDMT partners: WUR, Amsterdam UMC, TNO and Leiden University. Imagine a world in which we can accurately test the safety of chemicals and pharmaceuticals for our health without the use of laboratory animals. Imagine that we know how these substances interact with human biology and physiology and how...

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NWA-ORC grant for Organ-on-Chip models with integrated lymphatics

A 5 million Euro NWA-ORC grant was awarded to hDMT researchers to develop immunocompetent human Organ-on-Chip models with integrated lymph drainage for drug discovery and testing (LymphChip). The project is led by Valeria Orlova (coordinator) from Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), Christine Mummery (LUMC) and Sue Gibbs (VUMC). The lymphatic system plays a crucial role in our immune system, for example by regulating the immune response to pathogens. Lymphatic dysfunction underlies many diseases and could determine the effectiveness of therapies, whether drug or stem-cell based. Yet, in the new generation of in-vitro organ models used to study the effect of drugs and...

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