Lucy Sinke | 07-05-2026 | Beyond the CpG: an integrative approach to decoding DNA methylation in immunometabolic health Epigenetics as a key to healthier ageing Why do we slow down, gain weight, and become more vulnerable to disease as we age? In her PhD thesis, Lucy Sinke investigated how a molecular mechanism called DNA [...]
Nickel Maunu M, Meulenbelt I, Ramos YFM | 22-07-2026 | Stem cells are key for development of disease modeling and therapies. While promising, however, current application of cutting-edge hiPSC technologies is, among others, confounded by cellular heterogeneity leading to concerns about their suitability for experimental and clinical applications. Variations across donors, tissue sources, methodologies, [...]
Giorgia Mazzini, Margo Tuerlings,[...], and Ingrid Meulenbelt | 08-06-2026 | Cell-based cartilage repair is limited by loss of chondrogenic potential during in vitro expansion. Fibronectin (FN)-based selection may enrich progenitor-like cells with better matrix-forming ability, but its long-term effect on ECM production by hiPSC-derived chondroprogenitors (hiCPCs), their derived chondrocytes (hiCHOs), and primary articular chondrocytes (hACs) [...]
Swier Garst,[...], P Eline Slagboom, Joyce van Meurs | 18-05-2026 | Because individuals age at different rates, robust aging biomarkers are needed beyond chronological age. However, the methodological choices that shape such biomarkers have not been compared in a unified framework. This study addresses that gap by evaluating model choice, training targets, and protein [...]
Sana Sayedipour | 07-05-2026 | Development of innovative therapeutic strategies for osteoarthritis: exploring thermosensitive hydrogels, hiPSC-derived cells and cell-products, and novel drugs in preclinical models This thesis focuses on developing innovative therapeutic strategies for osteoarthritis (OA), a prevalent and disabling joint disease for which no disease-modifying treatments currently exist. The central aim was to [...]
Rick Mulders, Mathew Nickel-Maunu,[...], and Ingrid Meulenbelt | 22-04-2026 | Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) offer a powerful platform to model chondrogenesis and enable regenerative strategies, yet regulation of cell-fate commitment remains elusive. Here, we systematically mapped cell-fate trajectories from 7 time points during a 49-day chondrogenic hiPSC differentiation protocol using single-nucleus multimodal [...]
Bogaards FA, Groenendijk I, [...], Slagboom PE | 17-04-2026 | Nutritional weight-loss interventions are known to reduce bone mineral density (BMD), which can be prevented by adding (resistance) exercise training. However, this combined effect is not well studied in non-obese adults. In addition, the association between biomarkers and metabolite-based composite health markers with changes [...]
Niek Bloks| 22-10-2025 | Modeling the genetic and mechanical interplay in osteoarthritis: from in vitro systems to mechanistic insights Osteoarthritis (OA) is a multi-factorial degenerative disease of joint tissues in which the etio-pathophysiology revolves around the interplay between genetic and environmental risk factors. In current years, several robust genetic studies have elucidated etiopathophysiological pathways. [...]
Ilja Boone | 17-10-2025 | Exploring senescent chondrocytes during aging: sleeper AGEnts of osteoarthritis Osteoarthritis is a painful, age-related joint disease in which cellular senescence plays a central role. Senescent cells are retained from the active cell cycle and secrete harmful factors that contribute to cartilage degradation and tissue damage. Transcriptomic analysis of cartilage [...]
Koen Dekkers | 16-01-2025 | Effects of lipids on DNA methylation and gene expression of immune cells implicated in atherosclerosis Cardiovascular diseases, the leading cause of death worldwide, are often the result of atherosclerosis, a chronic inflammatory disease where lipids and immune cells accumulate in blood vessel walls. While LDL cholesterol has long been [...]
