Associate Professor at the Department of Internal Medicine, section Nephrology and Transplantation, at the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. My research is focused on regenerative medicine in the field of organ transplantation. I study the biology of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and their road to clinical application as mediators of immunomodulation and regeneration. In particular I am interested in the mechanisms of action of MSC, such as their survival and localization after infusion and the induction of immune cells with regulatory capacity by MSC. Various models are used for identifying biomarkers for monitoring MSC therapy and for dissecting key components of MSC that mediate their therapeutic effect, such as membrane-derived vesicles. I perform more fundamental regenerative studies through induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), which we try to differentiate into progenitor kidney tissue in our laboratory. The aim of this research is to generate as mature as possible kidney organoids and study the transplantability, stability and function of kidney organoids.