2024-04-11 18:31:38
There are diggers and grazers, I am a grazer. As a conceptual researcher, I like to push the boundaries of my knowledge.
Professor Jan van Hest
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 same cutting edge also fits in well with the ERC Advanced Grant. This prize is specifically linked to a person, but is also intended for the development of completely new areas of research (so-called fundamental research). high risk, high gain research).
“A grant like this offers significant opportunities. So I am obviously very happy with that,” says Van Hest. “Not least because the award is assessed by peers. That means a lot.”
Shrinking and swelling of muscle tissue
The new research that Van Hest has in mind has two main goals: “I first want to create artificial tissue to imitate the natural behavior of body cells in it, and then make the growth of that artificial tissue possible. Take muscle tissue for example: in a human body, collagen fibers between muscle tissue ensure that muscles can 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 shrink and swell. Then remember that the heart is also a large muscle, in which a continuous process of contraction and expansion takes place unconsciously when you breathe. We try to imitate this natural behavior of shrinking and swelling with our artificial tissue. Ultimately, we want to develop this more broadly than just for muscle tissue.”
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