L.R. Spoelstra MSc (Laurens)

Laurens Spoelstra obtained his bachelor's and master's degree in Biomedical Engineering with a specialization in Bioengineering Technologies from the University of Twente in 2020 and 2022. During his master's assignment, he worked on developing and designing a Joint-on-chip multi-organ-on-chip platform to study arthritis. After winning the TGS Award 2022 for his proposal for incorporating integrated (bio)sensing in an envisioned Joint-on-Chip platform, he is now working as a PhD Candidate in a collaboration of the DBE (Prof. Karperien), AMBER (Prof. Le Gac), and BIOS (Prof. Segerink) groups.

In his PhD project, Laurens will optimize existing synovium-on-chip and cartilage-on-chip platforms on both the biological and engineering levels with the end goal to combine them into a first-of-a-kind Joint-on-Chip platform. Additionally, he will work on developing a microfluidic breadboard and biosensing platform to study chondro-synovial crosstalk in the Joint-on-Chip, to increase our understanding of arthritis and to assist in future drug development.

Organisations

• Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS), Applied Microfluidics for BioEngineering Research (AMBER)
• Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS), Biomedical and Environmental Sensorsystems (BIOS)
• Faculty of Science and Technology (TNW), Developmental BioEngineering (DBE)