معرفی
Prof. dr. Robert Passier is a Full Professor and head of the Department of Applied Stem Cell Technologies at the University of Twente since 2015. He also holds a professorship at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) since 2017 and was appointed as a visiting professor at Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine, Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai in 2019. His research focuses on developing advanced human "heart-on-chip" systems and cardiac organoid-like tissues for modeling cardiac diseases, drug screening, and regenerative medicine applications.
Education and professional trajectory:
- Bachelor's and Master's in Biology and Health Sciences, Maastricht University
- PhD, Maastricht University, 1995
- Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center (1995-1998.5), focusing on molecular regulation of heart development and disease
- Postdoc/Group Leader, Crucell (1998.5-2002), cardiovascular drug target discovery
- Senior Postdoc, Hubrecht Institute (2002-2008), cardiac differentiation of human embryonic stem cells
- Associate Professor, Leiden University Medical Center, Department of Anatomy and Embryology (2008-2015), heading the group "Molecular regulation of cardiac development and disease"
- Full Professor and Head of Department, University of Twente, Department of Applied Stem Cell Technologies (2015-present)
- Professor, Leiden University Medical Center (2017-present)
- Visiting Professor, Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine, Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai (2019-present)
Prof. Passier's research interests include Stem Cell Technology, Tissue Engineering, Organ-on-a-Chip systems, Cardiac Regeneration, Drug Screening, Regenerative Medicine, and Cardiac Disease Modeling. His group's work is dedicated to building highly advanced human cardiac models to understand disease mechanisms and to develop new therapeutic interventions.
He chairs the "heart-on-chip" research theme at the Institute for Human Organ and Disease Model Technologies (hDMT) and has co-founded two biotechnology companies: Pluriomics (2011) and River BioMedics (2018). These companies aim to commercialize technologies for drug screening and regenerative medicine, reflecting his translational research approach.
As head of department, Prof. Passier leads a dynamic research team that secures grants for innovative projects at the intersection of stem cell biology, tissue engineering, and cardiovascular science, fostering collaborations across academia and industry.
