Melissa Van Velthoven Email & Phone Number

Amersfoort, UT, NL

Utrecht, Nederland

Nijmegen En Omgeving, Nederland

• 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.
• 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.

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

Cambridge, Verenigd Koninkrijk

• 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

Utrecht

• 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..
• 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

Master Of Science (Msc), Regenerative Medicine & Technology (Rmt)

This master program is in cooperation with the University of Technology at Eindhoven (TU/e). Regenerative medicine is a multidisciplinary.

Regenerative Medicine & Technology

Bachelor Of Science (Bsc), Biomedische Wetenschappen (Biomedical Sciences)

GPA = 3.27

Vwo, Natuur & Gezondheid / Natuur & Techniek

Bilingual education, received my IB diploma in English