In vitro engineering of functional myocardium
Within this line of research, the Medical Cell Biology Research Group focuses on the in vitro engineering of functional myocardium that mimics human heart tissue for analysis of myocardial function:
- Differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into functional cardiomyocytes and study of different genetic heart diseases with the help of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology.
- Dysfunction of the myocardium may result from complicated interactions between various cell types, thus more complex heart models are needed. Our objective is to mimic this interaction by creating a 3D co-culture of all cell types that make up the heart, including the cardiac fibroblasts that synthesize the ECM, to gain a deeper understanding of this interaction.
- Cultivation of cardiomyocytes with different biomaterials and characterization of the functional properties thereof.
Research project
Human stem cell-derived models to unveil mechanisms of impaired myocardial function in Marfan Syndrome
- researchers: Jeffrey Aalders and Jolanda van Hengel
- funding: Special Research Fund (BOF), from the 1st of October 2019 until today
Exploring molecular mechanisms underlying arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy using human-engineered heart tissue
- researchers: Laurens Léger and Jolanda van Hengel
- funding: Special Research Fund (BOF), from the 1st of November 2019 until today
Publications
Questions?
- Jolanda van Hengel, principal investigator