TU/e professor breaks new ground in the development of artificial tissues

There are diggers and shepherds and I am a herder. As a conceptual researcher, I like to push the boundaries of my knowledge.

Professor Jan van Heest

The intersection of disciplines

He is therefore also consciously affiliated with two TU/e ​​faculties: Chemical Engineering and Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering. His extensive career has brought him to the intersection of chemistry, biology, and technology. This cutting-edge feature also fits well with the advanced ERC grant. This award is specifically related to a person, but is also aimed at developing completely new research areas (so-called basic research). High risk, high reward research).

“A scholarship like this provides great opportunities. Obviously I'm very happy about it,” says van Heest. “Not least because the award is judged by peers. “It means a lot.”

Contraction and swelling of muscle tissue

The new research that Van Heest has in mind has two main goals: “I want to first create artificial tissues to mimic the natural behavior of the body's cells, and then make the growth of those artificial tissues possible. Take muscle tissue for example: In the human body, collagen fibers found between muscle tissue ensure that muscles are able to contract and expand again, as happens when you extend and retract your arm.

“These collagen fibers then move over each other, causing muscle tissue to contract and swell. Then remember that the heart is also a large muscle, in which a constant process of contraction and expansion occurs unconsciously when you breathe. We try to mimic this natural behavior of contraction and swelling using our tissues.” Synthetic. Ultimately, we want to develop this more broadly than just muscle tissue.