ACS provides funds to support talented ACS researchers and to stimulate collaboration between ACS researchers within Amsterdam UMC. Each year several calls are organized for ACS researchers at different stages of their careers.

Each year, ACS organizes grant rounds for the Postdoc grant, MD/PhD grant and the Out of the Box (OOTB) grant. The Postdoc and MD/PhD grants are for excellent young basic and clinical researchers, respectively, and aim to support talented ACS researchers. The Postdoc grant provides the opportunity to obtain postdoc experience for a period of one year in a prestigious research center abroad. The MD/PhD grant covers one day a week protected research time for a two-year post-doctoral project for medical specialists in training. The OOTB grant aims at supporting ACS project leaders to set up new collaborations within ACS. For more information on the different grants, see the overview of ACS grants.

Two laureates tell what the ACS grant has brought them.

Barbara Verhaar - ACS Postdoc grant 2024

The ACS Talent Grant 2024 enabled me to further develop my research on host-microbe interactions in cardiovascular disease at Amsterdam UMC. I focused on identifying microbial salt resistace genes in gut metagenomic data from the HELIUS cohort, in collaboration with several Principal Investigators within ACS. During this project, I strengthened my bioinformatics skills and built a new pipeline to profile these genes at scale. This led to preliminary findings showing that a higher abundance of certain salt resistance genes is associated with lower blood pressure. These results formed a key part of my successful NWO Veni application and helped shape my independent research line. The grant also gave me the opportunity to expand my network within ACS, laying the groundwork for future interdisciplinary collaborations.

Ronak Delewi – ACS MD/PhD grant 2016

During my residency in Cardiology at the AMC, I remained captivated by cardiovascular research in the hope of improving clinical outcomes on a larger scale. Although I am a devoted physician, I missed having dedicated research time. As such, this ACS MD/PhD grant provided the perfect combination for my last years of training. I spent this time performing research in the field of transcatheter aortic valve implantation, supervising PhD students and also set up new research ideas and grants. It truly was the foundation for the future, where I will hopefully be able to further combine the love for research and interventional cardiology.

Laureates 2024

Name Grant Project
Marion van Vugt Postdoc Genetically guided drug target identification in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
Barbara Verhaar Postdoc Uncovering the salt-resistant microbiome: insights into intestinal sodium absorption and hpertension
Stijn Meijnikman MD/PhD Inhibiting endogenous ethanol to decrease the burden of intestinal cellular senescence
Frits Mulder MD/PhD Towards prevention of arterial thrombosis in cancer: identifying critical risk factors
Marc Hilhorst and Annette Neele Out of the Box Monocyte activation by proteinuria in patients with chronic kidney disease
Nimrat Grewal and Arjan Houweling Out of the Box Genetic and Epigenomic Insights into Thoracic Aortopathy (GENIE-TA)

Laureates 2023
Name Grant Project
Elga de Vries and Inge Mulder Equipment Awake animal movement platform (Mobile Home Cage) and accompanying software
Pim van Oij and Marco Götte Equipment Smart-sync device provided by Northh Medical GmbH
Alexander Vlaar Equipment Two CytoCam Incident Dark Field (IDF) microcirculation cameras
Chantal van Opbergen Postdoc DNA damage and loss of nuclear envelope integrity as triggers of sudden cardiac death in the young
Melany Rios Morales Postdoc Unraveling fructose catabolism: Intestinal fructose-driven gluconeogenesis as an anti-obesity mechanism
Ilias Attaye MD/PhD Sex- and ethnic specific metabolism of dietary acid load in chronic kidney disease and cardio-metabolic disease
Jeroen Wessels MD/PhD The right heart phenotype and clinical outcomes in pulmonary hypertension
Vivian de Waard and Peter Hordijk Out of the Box Marfan syndrome iPSC-derived endothelial flow alignment and inflammation propagation
Louis Handoko and Joris de Groot Out of the Box The Epicardial Adipose Tissue/Myocardium IntEraction in Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (EAT/MIE-HFpEF) study: a proteome analysis of the EAT secretome
Rio Juni and Marten Hoeksema Out of the Box Cardiac immuno-microvascular interface in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction
Anke Tijsen and Jan Willem Buikema Out of the Box Boosting hiPSC-CM genome-editing efficiency via small molecular GSK3 inhibition
Jan van den Bossche and Lily Jakulj Out of the Box Human peritoneal macrophage phenotype and its relation to systemic inflammation and cardiac function
Pim van Ooij and Lilian Meijboom Out of the Box Cardiac 4D flow MRI in pulmonary hypertension
Daniel van Raalye and Irene van Valkengoed Out of the Box Deciphering the Role of Sex Hormones in Kidney Function: A Comprehensive Proteomic Analysis
Noam Zelcer en Diederik Kuster Out of the Box The mystery of ApoB: A tale of cardiomyocytes and hepatocytes

Laureates 2022
Name Grant Project
Elena Rampanelli/Daniel van Raalte/Peter Henneman Equipment GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler for spatial multiomics data
Abraham Hulst/Jeroen Hermanides, Denise Veelo/Daniel van Raalte/Alexander Vlaar Equipment Monitor for non-invasive measurement of urinary oxygenation
Jan Van den Bossche/Tyler Kirby Equipment Add-ons for a new AXR confocal microscope
Aida Llucià-Valldeperas/Frances de Man Equipment Extension for the FlexCell Tissue Train 3D culture system
Louis Handoko/Ot Bakersmans/Harm Jan Bogaard/Frances de Man Equipment Hemosphere monitor system for complete hemodynamic profiles in patients
Ilias Attaye Postdoc Identification of post-prandial gut-derived metabolites in cardio-metabolic health, with an emphasis on sex andethnic-specific associations
Lucía Cócera Ortega Postdoc Spatial cellular and transcriptomic map of Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy
Mark Smits Postdoc Evaluating the role of sphinganine in GLP-1 secretion (‘SPHINGS’)
Pranav Bhagirath, Cardiology Postdoc Computational modelling combined with high-resolution 3D cardiac MRI in patients with ventricular arrhythmia: towards improving procedural efficacy of catheter ablation
Femke Piersma Nursing Research Complications of electrical cardioversion for atrial fibrillation, a step towards a predictive model
Peter Hordijk/Jeffrey Kroon Out of the Box The role of autophagy in healthy and inflamed 3D microvessels
Gijs Kooij/Jan Van den Bossche/Noam Zelcer Out of the Box Reprogramming foam cells with bioactive lipid mediator
Reinier Boon/Vincent Christoffels/Harsha Devalla Out of the Box Non-coding RNA control of a novel familial arrhythmia syndrome
Harm Jan Bogaard/Louis Handoko/Max Nieuwdorp/Erik Duijvelaar: Out of the Box EMPHOWER: Empagliflozin for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Patients with Exclusive Comorbidities
Frances de Man/Menno de Winther Out of the Box Creating a cell culture model to study the role of resident macrophages on cardiac adaptation to pressure overload
Bianca Brundel/Bas Boukens Out of the Box Atrial Fibrillation detection in Lmna mutant mice by an innovative ex vivo precision approach: dissection role of bio-electrical impairment
Elena Rampanelli/Daniel van Raalte Out of the Box Microbiome-induced expression of regenerating Islet-derived protein 1B to rescue loss of functional beta cells in diabetes and associated cardiovascular complications
Josine de Winter/Michel van Weeghel Out of the Box Unraveling a novel pathomechanism in a novel cardiomyopathy
Lily Jakulj/Marc Vervloet/Michiel Pegtel Out of the Box Peritoneal Dialysis Effluent-derived Extracellular Vesicles (PDE-EVs) to characterize cardiovascular risk in peritoneal dialysis
Laureates 2021
Name Grant Project
Marjet Oppelaar/Rosa Wouda/Liffert Vogt /Marc Vervloet Equipment Four-Element Flame Photometer for biochemical analysis
Aart Nederveen/Pim van Ooij/Paul Groot Equipment AI compute node for advanced MR imaging techniques
Inge Mulder Equipment Long wavelength tunable laser for a multiphoton microscope
Jan Van den Bossche/Elga de Vries Equipment Biotek Cytation 5 upgrade for advanced imaging
Marco Götte Equipment 12-lead ECG monitoring and recording system for MRI
Laura Bosmans Postdoc Targeting Glucocorticoid-Induced TNF Family-Related Protein (GITR) in macrophages to combat atherosclerosis: Identification of GITR-TRAF Small Molecule Inhibitors
Arnout Mieremet Postdoc UnHiDe Marfan: Uncovering Haploinsufficient and Dominant Negative iPSC phenotypes in Marfan Syndrome
Alwin Zweerink MD/PhD Conduction System Pacing - MECHanical ANd electrICal Study (CSP-MECHANICS)
Stefanie van Oostrum Nursing Research Pre-operative Nurse Assessment in Cardiothoracic Surgical Patients: A mixed-methods process evaluation of a complex intervention
Marja Holierook Nursing Research Is Edmonton Frailty Scale assessment before Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation a good predictor of negative outcomes?
Reinier Boon/Monika Gladka Out of the Box Single nuclei RNA sequencing to study the human diseased heart
Bianca Brundel/Anke Tijsen Out of the Box Culturing of LMNA hiPSC-derived atrial cardiomyocytes to dissect mechanism underlying atrial fibrillation
Vivian de Waard/Kakkhee Yeung/Connie Jimenez Out of the Box What drives the engine of the aortic aneurysm: identifying (phospho)proteins at the center of vascular smooth muscle cell contractile dysfunction
Esther Lutgens/Ed Eringa/Reinier Zandbergen Out of the Box SARS-CoV2 infection of perivascular adipose tissue and hyperinflammation in COVID-19
Max Nieuwdorp/Elena Rampanelli/Barbara Verhaar/Daniel van Raalte Out of the Box The role of gut microbiota and its metabolites in blood pressure regulation
Laureates 2020
Name Grant Project
Fleur Tjong Postdoc Deep learning for identification of ICD patients at risk of lethal cardiac arrhythmias: The deep risk ICD Study
Annette Neele Postdoc Targeting the Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) in atherosclerosis by small molecule drugs
Najim Lahrouchi MD/PhD Personalized medicine for patients with the long QT syndrome
Nick van Es MD/PhD Combining clinical and genetic risk factors to identify cancer patients at high risk of arterial and venous thromboembolism: a new challenge in cardio-oncology
Menno de Winther/Jan Van den Bossche/Max Nieuwdorp/Maarten Soeters Out of the Box Promoting immune health by intermittent fasting: taming the monocytes?
Liffert Vogt/Majon de Boer/Marie van Dijk Out of the Box Investigating placental non-osmotic sodium buffering across pregnancy
Meeike Kusters/Barbara Hutten Out of the Box The search for new biomarkers in risk stratification: towards a tailor made treatment for young patients with familial hypercholesterolemia
Harm Jan Bogaard/Harry Buller/Josien Smits/Azar Kianzad Out of the Box Detecting CTEPH with educated platelets: a case-control study