Laura Windt

Background

About Laura Windt

My goal is to contribute to a healthy society! I am passionate about innovative models that mimic the human body as good as possible, such as Organ-on-Chip. The cells are all derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells to create personalised models for therapies and prevention. My academic journey began with a Biotechnology degree from Wageningen University (WUR), complemented by research exchanges to Utrecht University and Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Here, I studied intestinal organoids derived from stem cells, which sparked my passion for creating realistic, patient-specific models. During my internship at Mimetas, I worked on Lung-on-a-Chip and Liver-on-a-Chip, developing vascularized models to simulate organ function, disease progression and treatment. This experience deepened my knowledge of Organ-on-Chip platforms, which led to my PhD research at LUMC, within Prof. Dr. Christine Mummery's lab and the Netherlands Organ-on-Chip Initiative (NOCI). My work focused on developing Heart-on-Chip models, advancing our understanding of miniaturization of the model, automation, cardiovascular diseases and therapeutic interventions. Currently, I am a Project Lead Organ-on-Chip at Health~Holland, where I focus on fostering national and international collaborations to accelerate the development and implementation of Organ-on-Chip technologies. In addition to my research, I am an active public speaker, presenting at scientific conferences and engaging the general public on the potential of Organ-on-Chip models. As a writer, I have authored scientific papers, my PhD thesis "Tissue Engineered Models of the Human Heart", part of the cahier "Miniorganen op Chips – Ontwikkeling van nieuwe onderzoeksmodellen voor ziekte en behandeling", blogs, and currently working on a roadmap for Organ-on-Chip technologies.