Christine Mummery has contributed to the year book of Diligentia, De Koninklijke Maatschappij voor Natuurkunde. For the article in Dutch see here.

Een impressie van ‘jouw lichaam-op-een-chip’. Met dank aan Berend van Meer, Mees de Graaf, Claire Glashan.

 

Summary of the lecture: The human heart is very different from that of a mouse. But the mouse is still the most used lab animal to treat heart disease study in the search for new drugs. The mouse heart is not only smaller, but it beats 500 times a minute instead of 60 times like in humans. Since 2007 we can make pluripotent stem cells from each individual through “reprogramming”. These stem cells can transform into every cell in the human body, so also cardiovascular cells. This is a new chance to understand the human heart and its associated system of blood vessels, both in healthy people as well as in patients with heart disease. Prof. dr. mummery discussed how this is being done in the lab. Some of the misunderstandings about what stem cells can and cannot do, were discussed.

Source: Natuurkundige Voordrachten 2020-2021, nieuwe reeks no. 99, uitgave Koninklijke Mij voor Natuurkunde ‘Diligentia’ can be downloaded via www.natuurwetenschappen-diligentia.nl. For the yearbook see here.