Dissertation: Novel Tissue Engineering Strategies for Pelvic Organ Prolapse: Functionalized Polyisocyanide Hydrogels (Institute of Molecules and Materials, Radboud Unversity)• Functionalization, in vitro and in vivo investigation of the polyisocyanide (PIC) hydrogel with basic fibroblast growth factor and estradiol.• Investigate the effect of cyclic strain on 3D cultured pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and non-POP vaginal fibroblasts. Herefore, the bioreactor had to be adjusted in order to dynamically culture 3D constructs• Conducting a systematic review (The Effect of Growth Factors on Vaginal Wound Healing: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis) • Skills: supervising interns, scientific writing, presenting at (inter)national congresses, grant writing (systematic review), collaborating with (external) researchers, project management, data analysis, conducting a meta-analysis, problem solving, working with multidisciplinary teams and teaching • Experimental techniques: polymer synthesis (including functionalizing the polymer with growth factors and estradiol), working with the PIC hydrogel, primary culture, 3D culture, working and optimizing bioreactors for applying cyclic strain to 3D constructs, confocal microscopy and conventional lab techniques (qPCR, ELISA, proliferation and protein quantification assays and flow cytometry)

As a tutor I teach students (vmbo, havo, vwo, mbo) in the following subjects: Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics (Wiskunde A + B)

Thesis: Tumor microenvironment-on-a-chip: investigating neutrophil recruitment (MRC Cancer Unit, University of Cambridge)• Developing an tumor microenvironment-on-chip device, which we could successfully perfuse with immune cells in order to study neutrophil recruitment • Techniques: fabrication of organ-on-a-chip devices, perfusion and live imaging of organ-on-a-chip devices, primary cell culture, 3D cell culture, working with (natural) hydrogels and (confocal) microscopy • Skills: scientific writing, presenting, collaborating with (external) researchers, performing research independently, data analysis, planning and problem solving

Thesis: designing an in situ tissue engineered heart valve from a biomechanical perspective (Department of Biomedical Engineering at TU/e)• Conducting a literature review about the biomechanics of native and tissue-engineered heart valves and providing suggestions on how tissue-engineered heart valves can be improved from a biomechanical perspective

Thesis: Tissue engineering of multilayered tubular structures for urethral reconstruction (Department of experimental Urology at the Regenerative Medicine Center Utrecht)• (Vascularized) tissue engineering of multilayered tubular constructs by casting an cell-laden electrospun scaffold onto an electropsun scaffolds • This work has been published in Tissue Engineering Part C: van Velthoven M.J.J., et. al. (2020) Gel Casting as an Approach for Tissue Engineering of Multilayered Tubular Structures. Tissue Eng Part C Methods. 26(3):190-198.• Techniques: primary cell culture, 3D cell culture, working with (natural) hydrogels, 3D printing, (confocal) microscopy and (compression/tensile) mechanical testing• Skills: scientific writing, presenting, experience with writing abstract for congresses, collaborating with (external) researchers, performing research independently, data analysis, planning and problem solving