Evelyn Houtman

Evelyn Houtman (1991) started her PhD in May 2016 at the department of Molecular Epidemiology (LUMC). After receiving her high school diploma she studied Biomedical Sciences at the University of Leiden from 2009-2015. During her education she performed various researches at different departments:

• The identification of genetic variants in families with short stature by using a filtering tree for clinical applications and the optimisation of a SNP test to control for sample swap. (4 month, clinical genetics)
• The effects of inhibition of inflammation (via addition of salsalate or TLR-4) in the brain on the function of brown adipose tissue in ApoE3*Leiden.CETP mice on a high-fat diet. (6 months, endocrinology)
• The identification of the underlying mechanism of osteoarthritis (OA) in the GARP study using exome sequencing data. The goals was not to find the causal mutations for all siblings, but to identify pathways that play a more general role in OA. (11 months, Molecular Epidemiology)

Her PhD research at the department of molecular epidemiology will be supported by a Reumafonds grant and will focus on attenuation of intra-articular thyroid signalling in a osteoarthritis (OA) explant model. In this OA explant model, cartilage damage is induced via overloading and one of the goals is to investigate whether this damage can be lessened, stopped and maybe even reversed.

In 2019 Evelyn was awarded the OARSI Belt and Road Scholarship, which she will use to perform research in the group of Prof. Dr. Rik Lories at KU Leuven (Belgium)

Publications:

Characterization of dynamic changes in Matrix Gla Protein (MGP) gene expression as function of genetic risk alleles, osteoarthritis relevant stimuli, and the vitamin K inhibitor warfarin. Houtman E, Coutinho de Almeida R, Tuerlings M, Suchiman HED, Broekhuis D, Nelissen RGHH, Ramos YFM, van Meurs JBJ, Meulenbelt I. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2021 May 10:S1063-4584(21)00730-5. doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2021.05.001. PMID: 33984465

Human Osteochondral Explants: Reliable Biomimetic Models to Investigate Disease Mechanisms and Develop Personalized Treatments for Osteoarthritis. Houtman E, van Hoolwerff M, Lakenberg N, Suchiman EHD, van der Linden-van der Zwaag E, Nelissen RGHH, Ramos YFM, Meulenbelt I. Rheumatol Ther. 2021 Mar;8(1):499-515. doi: 10.1007/s40744-021-00287-y. PMID: 33608843

RNA Sequencing Reveals Interacting Key Determinants of Osteoarthritis Acting in Subchondral Bone and Articular Cartilage: Identification of IL11 and CHADL as Attractive Treatment Targets. Tuerlings M, van Hoolwerff M, Houtman E, Suchiman EHED, Lakenberg N, Mei H, van der Linden EHMJ, Nelissen RRGHH, Ramos YYFM, Coutinho de Almeida R, Meulenbelt I. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2021 May;73(5):789-799. doi: 10.1002/art.41600. PMID: 33258547

Identification and characterization of two consistent osteoarthritis subtypes by transcriptome and clinical data integration. Coutinho de Almeida R, Mahfouz A, Mei H, Houtman E, den Hollander W, Soul J, Suchiman E, Lakenberg N, Meessen J, Huetink K, Nelissen RGHH, Ramos YFM, Reinders M, Meulenbelt I. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2021 Mar 2;60(3):1166-1175. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keaa391. PMID: 32885253

RNA sequencing data integration reveals an miRNA interactome of osteoarthritis cartilage. Coutinho de Almeida R, Ramos YFM, Mahfouz A, den Hollander W, Lakenberg N, Houtman E, van Hoolwerff M, Suchiman HED, Rodríguez Ruiz A, Slagboom PE, Mei H, Kiełbasa SM, Nelissen RGHH, Reinders M, Meulenbelt I. Ann Rheum Dis. 2019 Feb;78(2):270-277. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2018-213882. PMID: 30504444

Neo-cartilage engineered from primary chondrocytes is epigenetically similar to autologous cartilage, in contrast to using mesenchymal stem cells. Bomer N, den Hollander W, Suchiman H, Houtman E, Slieker RC, Heijmans BT, Slagboom PE, Nelissen RG, Ramos YF, Meulenbelt I. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2016 Aug;24(8):1423-30. doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2016.03.009. PMID: 26995110