As a reseacher you want to matter. You really want to make a difference in the lives of people with a cardiovascular condition. Now and in the future. That is why you consciously choose to work at
the Department of Cardiology of the UMCG, a dynamic department where research and clinical practice are intertwined. We translate problems that we experience in clinical practice into scientific research. We improve patient care with the results of our scientific findings. We believe that providing talent room to develop, a solution can ultimately be found for every cardiovascular condition. As a PhD student, UMCG Cardiology therefore offers you many opportunities to follow your interests and give your talent space.
Job description
Heart failure is a major health care problem. Why certain people develop heart failure and why others are protected from it, is currently unknown. The objective of the ERC supported project “DISSECT-HF” is to generate 3D engineered heart tissues with the use of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) from specific forms of heart failure. It focusses on three etiologies of HF with a clear trigger and a large inter-individual susceptibility (pregnancy induced heart failure, anthracycline cardiotoxicity and PLN cardiomyopathy) to unravel common pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the development of heart failure.
Recent work from the Van der Meer lab has shown that disease mechanisms can be identified with the use of stem cells and tissue engineering (Hoes et al. Circulation 2020, Vermeer et al. JCI 2021). Furthermore, we explore the use of RNA therapeutics in the treatment of heart failure (Grote Beverborg et al. Nat Comm 2021).
For the DISSECT-HF project you will supervise a PhD student and will generate 3D tissues with the use of hiPSC and expose them to specific triggers. Identified targets will be further explored in animal and cell models. You must have an interest in cardiology and translational science. You will make use of a wide array of methods, including cell culture, tissue engineering, histology, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic assays. The results of the studies will be published in peer-reviewed Journals.