• Heidelberglaan 100, UMC Utrecht

      3584 CX Utrecht

      Netherlands

    20052024

    Research activity per year

    Personal profile

    Personal webpage

    Biography

    Linda W. Van Laake, MD, PhD obtained her medical degree at Maastricht University and her PhD (title: Cardiac Recovery by Stem and Progenitor Cells) at Utrecht University, after which she continued her scientific career as a postdoctoral researcher at the Gladstone Institutes, University of California, San Francisco (USA). In 2011 she became Assistant Professor at the Department of Cardiology of the University Medical Center Utrecht and the Hubrecht Institute Utrecht, the Netherlands. In addition, she works as a clinical cardiologist specialized in heart failure.

    Dr. Van Laake’s team explores novel approaches to regenerate the heart using stem- and progenitor cells. Many cardiovascular diseases, such as heart failure and myocardial infarction, are associated with loss of functional cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells). A focus on the understanding of fundamental cardiac developmental – and repair processes will promote the recapitulation of cardiac differentiation in vitro. Currently, the team is investigating the influence of circadian or “day-night” rhythms on cardiac development and regeneration.

    Combing a variety of novel approaches together with a greater understanding of how heart development and repair work, Dr. Van Laake and her team strive to create better personalized heart failure therapies.

     

    Side activities

    • Member of the Translational Committee of the Heart Failure Association, European Society of Cardiology
    • Selected participant of the Postgraduate Course in Heart Failure of the Heart Failure Association, European Society of Cardiology
    • Member of the Young ICIN (Interuniversity Cardiology Institute of the Netherlands) committee
    • Selected participant of the Jacob Jongbloed Talent Society Program, Circulatory Health, UMC Utrecht
    • Participant of “The Young Academy on Wheels”; an outreach program by the Young Academy of the KNAW to bring high school students in contact with science and scientists
    • Selected participant of UMC Utrecht female leadership program Steyn Parvé
    • Member of the Young Health Council, an advisory body to the government and parliament on the current level of knowledge with respect to public health issues and health (services) research
    • Nucleus Member of the Working Group on Cellular Biology of the Heart, European Society of Cardiology
    • Editorial Board member of Stem Cell Reviews and Reports, the Netherlands Heart Journal, and the Journal of Geriatric Cardiology
    • Regular reviewer for Stem Cells, Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, Stem Cell Reports, Differentiation, Stem Cell Research, European Journal of Heart Failure
    • Reviewer for NWO-ZonMw, Netherlands Heart Foundation, FWO (Flanders Research Foundation), KWF (Netherlands Cancer Foundation), National Research Foundation Luxembourg

     Conflict of interest: none

    Fellowship & awards

    Grants:

    • UMCU Clinical Research Talent Fellowship, 2014-2016
    • Jacob Jongbloed Talent Society grant for multidisciplinary team effort “Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction in Metabolic Syndrome”, 2014
    • Novartis personal grant for participation in the Postgraduate Course in Heart Failure of the European Society of Cardiology, 2014-2015
    • Netherlands Heart Foundation Dekker personal grant “Arts in Opleiding tot Specialist” 2013-2016
    • European Society of Cardiology First Contact Initiative Grant 2013
    • Veni ZonMw grant 2011-2014, a personal grant that is part of the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme of NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research)
    • Keystone Scholarship (Pathological and Physiological Regulation of Cardiac Hypertrophy), 2008
    • ICIN (Interuniversity Cardiology Institute of the Netherlands) Fellowship 2007 for post-doctoral training in the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, San Francisco.
    • Netherlands Heart Foundation grant for working visit to the US “Functional integration of transplanted human embryonic stem-cell derived cardiomyocytes”, 2006
    • Van Walree Fund grant, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences; 2004

    Awards:

    • Heineken Young Scientist Award for Medicine, of the KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), 2012
    • Young Investigator Award, European Society of Cardiology Congress, Stockholm, 2010
    • Einthoven Dissertatieprijs 2009 (award for the best PhD thesis in Cardiology of 2008)
    • European Society of Cardiology Basic Cardiovascular Science Travel Award, 2008

    External positions

    Bestuurslid Werkgroep Hartfalen - Connectie beroepsgroep (cardiologen) - hartfalen, o.a. scholing, beoordelen beleidsdocumenten - NVVC

    1 Mar 202231 Dec 3999

    Commissielid Dekkerbeurzen (clinical scientist en postdoc) - Beursaanvragen beoordelen en selecteren - Hartstichting

    1 Jan 20191 Jan 2025

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