Regenerative medicine of tissues and organs (RegMedTO)

Regenerative Medicine

The human body has the natural ability to heal itself after injury: skin cuts, broken bones, and even damaged organs like the liver can regenerate and repair themselves. However, not all tissues or organs have this capacity. Regenerative medicine aims to enhance or develop alternatives to self-repair mechanisms, replacing or restoring damaged cell-, tissue-, or organ function caused by disease, injury (including treatment-induced damage such as in cancer), and aging. This will bring new solutions for patients affected by a wide range of medical conditions. The work in this subtheme is centered around two approaches: cell therapy and gene therapy.

Disease modeling

This subtheme focuses on stem cells, microphysiological systems (MPS), or Organs-on-Chip that many research groups at LUMC use to create heart, kidney, brain, lung, bone, muscle, liver, eye, ear, blood vessels, and skin models. In many cases, genetic diseases have been captured by these models and research is underway to find gene or drug therapies to treat these.

Transplantation

LUMC is a leading center for transplantation. In our Transplantation subtheme, we build on a long and successful history of bone marrow and organ transplantation and strong transplant immunology expertise. Our main goals are: to assess and optimize donor organ, tissue, and cell quality before transplantation (1); to develop new strategies of donor and recipient targeted intervention (2); and to improve patient outcomes for waitlist and post-transplant (3).

reNEW – The Novo Nordisk Foundation for Stem Cell Medicine

reNEW is a unique global collaboration focusing on stem cell research involving three leading research institutions: the University of Copenhagen, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne and LUMC.

reNEW aims to translate fundamental research into new stem cell-derived products to improve both the health and lives of people throughout the world. reNEW not only promotes stem cell-based research, but also strengthens the pathways from scientific discovery to targeted results and commercialization. reNEW aims at making a significant contribution to stem cell medicine in the form of new medical technologies or treatments options.

Involved departments: ANA, INT, IMMU, MBESLIS, E&R, KNO, CPM, CCG.

RegMed XB – Regenerative Medicine Crossing Borders

RegMed XB is a Dutch public–private partnership focused on accelerating regenerative medicine toward clinical use. It brings together universities, medical centers, companies, and government to develop stem cell–based therapies and advanced technologies. By combining expertise across disciplines and investing in infrastructure and talent, RegMed XB aims to translate scientific breakthroughs into scalable treatments that can restore or replace damaged tissues and improve patients’ lives.

Involved departments: ANA, INT, MOLEPI, CCB, KNO.

hDMT – Human Organ and Disease Model Technologies

hDMT anno 2025 is a national network, consisting of the hDMT foundation and 16 partner organizations, that aims to enhance the understanding of human biology and improve the prevention and management of health conditions on a global scale.

The mission is to facilitate and support the development of dynamic human models and their translation into practical applications for research, innovation and a healthier future. The approach is to combine the worlds of advanced biomedical technologies and engineering, to stimulate multidisciplinary collaboration, and to drive the translation of these models toward practical applications. The support is to build the community and infrastructure with service centers of expertise, to promote education and training, and to facilitate development, standardization, qualification, validation, production, valorization and implementation of models. The result is the availability of dynamic human models for end users, tailored to their needs. 

Involved department: ANA