Personal summary

On a daily basis I take care of the animals which involves weighing, training, blood withdrawn, ultrasound, and mental health tasks. Besides the animals, I work with induced pluripotent stem cells induced vascular smooth muscle cells (iVSMCs) to elucidate the phenotypic switches due to breast cancer secreted factors. Additionally, I work together with oncology of MUMC+ to collect plasma samples from breast cancer patients (stages I-III) that can be used in our clinical study.

What is your research about?

The focus of my research is the development of a novel multimorbidity animal model that represents the interactions between vascular diseases (e.g. atherosclerosis and vascular calcification), cancer and cognitive decline. Besides animal work, I focus on the interaction between (breast)cancer and vascular calcification on an in vitro level. Additionally, our clinical study collects plasma of (breast)cancer patients that are tested on the risk of thrombosis, cellular damage and vascular calcification.

Contact information

If you require any further information or want to collaborate, please feel free to reach out to me at femke.devries@maastrichtuniversity.nl.