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Community

  1. Alumni A - C
  2. Alumni D- F
  3. Alumni G- I
  4. Alumni J- L
  5. Alumni M - O
  6. Alumni P - S
  7. Alumni T - V
  8. Alumni W - Z

Alumni of the Eureka course talk about their views on Translational Medicine

Learn more about the Eureka certificate course 

Alumni A - C

Petra Baarendse

Senior Expert / Architect

Petra Baarendse

“I am proud of the improved health care in the UMC Utrecht due to better collaboration in professional care teams and more focus on the patient perspective.”

Marije Bartels

Pediatric Hematologist 

Marije Bartels

“I would call myself a clinician-scientist because I am translating clinical findings into new research projects, and translating lab findings into potential clinical applications. I do this within my own field of interest as well as in the projects of my colleagues or researchers that I meet.”

Louis Bont

Pediatrician and Researcher 

Louis Bont

“The solution to major medical problems can often only be solved by a Translational Medicine approach.”

Niels Bovenschen

Associate Professor and Group leader, Department of Pathology 

Niels Bovenschen

"Think big, act accordingly, and always keep the end goal in mind. Translational Medicine acts on the interplay between patient problems (society) and basic biomedical research. To achieve a long-term and more sustainable beneficial outcome of this interplay, I believe in effective coupling of Translational Medicine to undergraduate education, including discovery learning and patient participation. This generates strong synergy between healthcare, research, and education, with the goal of fostering Translational Medicine and helping patients."

Theo van den Broek

M.D., Ph.D.  and Group leader Experimental Immunology at Center for Translational Immunology

Theo van den Broek

"Translational medicine and collaborative science are the twin engines driving progress, where the synergy of diverse minds propels the innovation needed to transform research into real-world solutions, improving lives and shaping the future."

Joyce Browne 

Associate Professor Global Health

Joyce Brown

"I like to think of translational medicine as a concept that we can apply to other complex societal issues: how can we translate important theoretical or fundamental knowledge into practice, to allow it to benefit people. It’s an recurrent question that I apply in my own fields of global health and health equity."

Sylvia Brugman

Assistant Professor, Cell Biology and Immunology Group, Wageningen University

Sylvia Brugman

“Translational Medicine requires teams consisting of clinicians and fundamental researchers, and aims to translate findings with the help of all team members to ensure that patients can benefit.” 

Maja Bulatović Ćalasan

Internal Medicine Resident

Maja Bulatović Ćalasan

“My role model is embodied in several different people, both clinician-scientists and clinicians, whom I encountered during my career so far. They are my role models because of their integrity, perseverance, passion for their work, belief in what they do, and belief in the people they do their work with.”

Alumni D- F

Roel Deckers

Assistant professor, Imaging Division

Roel Deckers

“I would call someone a translational scientist when the main objective of their research is to cross the ‘Valley of Death’ between promising pre-clinical results and making the drug or device part of daily clinical practice.”

Edwin van Dellen

Associate Professor of Psychiatry

Edwin van Dellen

"Translational research in interdisciplinary teams is vital to connect the complexities of the mind to tangible treatments."

Eric van Diessen

Resident in Pediatrics, postdoctoral researcher Pediatric Neurology

Eric van Diessen

"Impactful. Accessible. Collaboration. Three key ingredients for translation medicine. The Eureka Certificate Course made me realize how easily we drift away from its main purpose: doing something meaningful for the patient. The Eureka community helped me to re-evaluate my own research and set new goals as a clinician-scientist."

Pieter van Dijkhuizen

PhD student, Pediatric Rheumatology

Pieter van Dijkhuizen

“In my research, I try to keep in mind how patients can benefit from the results. I find this hard to accomplish, due to the fact that most research findings represent small steps ahead and need further research and optimizations before they can be really applied in daily clinical practice.”

Sabine Fuchs

Pediatrician in Metabolic Diseases with dedicated research time

Sabine Fuchs

“We live in a very exciting time with spectacular technological possibilities, including next generation sequencing, gene editing, stem cell (organoid) in vitro modelling, transcriptomics, metabolomics, large compound screens... Information technology enables world wide access to international expertise and patient sharing. If embedded in a collaborative, patient-oriented, creative, inspiring and critical environment, we should be able to raise translational medicine to great heights!"

Alumni G- I

Stefan van Geelen

Program manager UMC Utrecht Educational Strategy, Senior Researcher Philosophy of Medicine

Stefan van Geelen

"Translational medicine is unique in creatively trying to bridge the continuum from elemental scientific ideas to concrete clinical applications, and to do so within a broad societal context. I believe the future of translational medicine lies in opening up its scholarly domains (moving beyond a rather narrow focus on biomedicine) and in also reversing the traditional directions in which knowledge is thought to be transferred. In other words, how can pressing societal issues be translated to healthcare practice and subsequently lead to new basic research?"

Aisha Gohar

PhD Student

Aisha Gohar

“My research and hypotheses are always driven by patients’ needs, and aim to increase awareness of problems within certain areas of health care. They don’t always directly or immediately impact patient care, but in my opinion that is okay if the research still supports patients’ needs or draws attention to healthcare areas in need of change and innovation. In the long term, we will see the impact of this research.”

-breaking discoveries. Organoid technology will revolutionize personalized and Translational Medicine.”

Gijs van Haaften

Associate Professor, Group Leader

Gijs van Haaften

“My role model is Leonard Cohen: There is a crack in everything, that is where the light gets in.”

Marne Hagemeijer

Postdoctoral Researcher

Marne Hagemeijer

“I foresee that precision medicine will become more important with regards to diagnosis and treatment of diseases, with Translational Medicine being at the forefront of these developments.”

Antoni Hendrickx

Molecular microbiologist’

Antoni Hendrickx

“My role model is Hans Clevers. He is a pioneering scientist with a great worldwide scientific and societal impact due to his ground."

Imo Höfer

Associate Professor, Head of Central Biobank

Imo Höfer

“Translational Medicine is part of my every day work. I work together with clinicians and basic scientists, and have numerous collaborations with private partners, all aiming to improve diagnosis and care by making use of translational research.”

Sanne Hoeks

Pediatrician and Neonatologist

Sanne Hoeks

“At the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, continuous improvement in care for these small and very vulnerable human beings is mandatory to improve long-term outcome and quality of life. Historically, this population has been underrepresented in basic science and therapeutic research. I feel a responsibility to make research on neonates possible in the best clinical way.”

Alumni J- L

Marc Jansen

Pediatric Immunologist, Rheumatologist

Marc Jansen

Martijn Koppens

Postdoctoral Researcher

Martijn Koppens

“Although I consider myself a basic scientist, my ultimate motivation for doing research is to see your fundamental ideas developed into applications that truly help patients. Translational medicine identifies the crucial steps in this process, and we should make these more accessible to optimise social impact."

Belinda van 't Land

Affiliated Senior Scientist

Belinda van 't Land

“I am most proud of having initiated and continued to build the Scientific Alliance between the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital and Nutricia Research, with a focus on immune development and nutrition.” 

Caroline Lindemans

Pediatric Immunologist and Bone Marrow Transplantation Specialist 

Caroline Lindemans

“In the future, Translational Medicine will become more and more important – but in our efforts to connect with the clinic we will have to be careful not to lose touch with basic scientists.”

Jorg van Loosdregt

Associate Professor

Jorg van Loosdregt

“I don’t believe that translational research can be performed alone. Working together with fundamental/clinical scientists, industry, and patient representatives allows me to learn more, generate more impact, and have more fun”

Jurjen Luykx

Psychiatrist

Jurjen Luykx

"Rendering science actionable poses true challenges on researchers. Translational medicine is all about this, both short term and long term. To me personally, the awareness of translational models that are actionable made me shift my research focus to genetics-informed prediction of treatment response and side effects."

Alumni M - O

Sabine Middendorp

Associate Professor, Pediatric Gastroenterology 

Sabine Middendorp

“I am most proud of having created an organoid-based screening platform that uses patient-specific organoids as models of disease.”

Marc van Mil

Innovation of education Biomedical Sciences

Marc van Mil

"In my view, education plays a crucial role in overcoming the challenges in translational medicine. (Future) heath care professionals from different disciples should be challenged to cross existing boundaries and work interdisciplinary. This is exactly what the EUREKA certificate course did to me."

Saskia van Mil

Associate Professor and Group Leader at Center for Molecular Medicine 

Saskia van Mil

“My drive in doing translational science is to understand the molecular mechanisms of disease pathogenesis in the liver and gastrointestinal tract. Together with partners, such as clinicians, pharmaceutical companies, and patient representatives, I aim to translate this knowledge into therapy or diagnostic tools for the benefit of human health.”

Joris van Montfrans

Pediatrician

Joris van Montfrans

“I am most proud of having brought together different people into a multidisciplinary group. All had something to bring to the table, and the outcome will be bigger than all the individual input.”

Sanne Nijhof

Pediatrician and Postdoctoral Researcher 

Sanne Nijhof

“In my research, I collaborate with fundamental researchers, clinical researchers,  and with other disciplines – for example with people who build bridges between research, clinical practice and society.” 

Frank Nijsen

Associate Professor

Frank Nijsen

“What I am proud of is that, together with my research group, we came up with the “idea” of radioactive holmium microspheres as a possible treatment of liver tumors into a real product for treatment of liver tumors, available for all patients in Europe.”

Alumni P - S

Annet van Royen

Director Medical School and Pediatric Immunologist, Rheumatologist

Annet van Rooyen

"It is key for health professionals and researchers, to realize that translational medicine and interdisciplinary collaboration is required to find potential solutions, for current and future complex health-related problems. Good teamwork is essential, one cannot act alone anymore."

The EUREKA certificate course provides a safe learning environment to create awareness, understanding, and to train competences to cross boundaries between disciplines.”

Hester den Ruijter

Associate Professor, Experimental Cardiology

Hester den Ruyter

“I hope the future of Translational Medicine will be bright and based on teamwork. In my view, the only way to succeed is to bring together people who have the creativity and freedom to think outside the box.”

Henk Schipper

Pediatric Cardiology Fellow

Henk Schipper

“I feel that frequent inspiration by clinical problems or patients is the most important aspect of Translational Medicine. After all, both fundamental and clinical scientists can perform Translational Medicine, but their orientation matters: are they inspired by patients and their problems, or do they merely wish to solve their own experimental problems?”

Michiel Schreuder

Pediatric Nephrologist, Radboud University Medical Center, Amalia Children’s Hospital, Nijmegen

Michiel Schreuder

“I am very proud to be building the infrastructure, setting up the network, and obtaining the funding to study several diseases that have frustrated me in the clinic. I hope to provide better answers and therefore better treatments and guidance in the near future.”

Erwin van Spil

Rheumatologist, Medical manager Centrum Electief

Erwin van Spil

"Around 240 million people around the world suffer from osteoarthritis, a chronic joint disease for which treatment options are scarce. My goal is to help improve non-surgical treatment for these people. I think we can get there when we combine expertise and creativity from the great variety of professionals and patients in the field and make sure that we are constantly aware of our responsibility to patients and societies. Academic medical centers, like the UMC Utrecht, should be at the core and provide a solid base to support such efforts."

Trudy Straetemans

Scientific Project Leader, Tumor Immunology section

Trudy Straetemans

“Translational medicine happens when different worlds and disciplines connect, collaborate and join forces in order to realize improved treatment strategies. I am proud that I have made these connections and that I am working with an amazing diverse group of people that enabled the treatment of the first patients with “TEG001 cells”, a cellular gene therapy product developed and produced within the UMC Utrecht.”

Joost Swart

Pediatric Rheumatologist and Immunologist 

Joost Swart

“Wietse Kuis is my role model, because he has a brilliant mind, is honest, is engaged with what he does, feels for his patients, and wants to dive into details in the lab to understand everything he sees in his patients.”

Alumni T - V

Bas Vastert

Bas Vastert

Lilly Verhagen

Pediatrician - Infectious Diseases and Immunology subspecialist

Lilly Verhagen

"Translational science is the bridge that connects curiosity-driven inquiry to tangible impact in pediatric healthcare worldwide. Through dedicated research and compassionate patient care, we study the complexities of the respiratory mucosal immune system, striving to protect vulnerable children from severe respiratory tract infections. By collaborating with diverse countries and communities, we ensure that our findings reach those who need them most, looking forward to a future where every child can breathe easier and thrive."

Maud Verhoef

Programme Coordinator MSc &PhD Epidemiology, Julius Center

Maud Verhoef

“Knowledge about a translational approach to research should already be taught early on in research masters. So when performing your research, from an internship and onwards, translational thoughts and questions must cross your mind: How can my work help or benefit others and how will I be able to reach them?”

Christiaan Vinkers

Psychiatrist 

Christiaan Vinkers

“Translating the needs and languages of one discipline to another is truly challenging, but it is pivotal in order to share knowledge and to come to novel solutions.”

Alumni W - Z

Femke van Wijk

Associate Professor 

Femke van Wijk

“I am most proud of having contributed to the training and mentoring of young professionals and scientists, each with their own career paths. They are going to make the difference.”

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