Specialization
Focus of research
Dr. Jan Willem Buikema is a cardiologist and translational cardiovascular researcher at Amsterdam UMC. His clinical work focuses on patients with heart failure, while his research aims to understand the mechanisms underlying cardiac dysfunction and identify new strategies to promote cardiac repair and regeneration.
His research is driven by clinical questions. He investigates how cardiomyocytes grow, mature and respond to mechanical and molecular signals, with a particular focus on the reactivation of fetal developmental programs in the failing heart. His group combines human pluripotent stem-cell biology, engineered heart tissues, tissue engineering and patient-derived models to study these mechanisms. Key areas of interest include WNT/β-catenin, insulin/AKT-FOXO signalling and cell–cell adhesion, with the ultimate aim of translating fundamental insights into new therapeutic approaches for patients with heart failure.
Dr. Buikema developed his interest in cardiac biology during his medical training (University of Groningen), including research at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he studied mechanisms regulating cardiomyocyte proliferation and cardiac growth. He subsequently obtained his PhD at Utrecht University on the molecular control of ventricular growth and subsequently completed his training in cardiology at UMC Utrecht.
Dr. Buikema worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. There, he further developed his expertise in human pluripotent stem-cell biology and cardiac disease modelling, contributing to the development of stem-cell-based approaches to study human cardiac disease. This international experience provided an important foundation for his current research program at Amsterdam UMC.
At Amsterdam UMC, Dr. Buikema is building an independent research program at the interface of cardiology, stem-cell biology and regenerative medicine. He is the principal investigator and consortium leader of a Hartstichting-funded research consortium investigating combination therapies to promote cardiac repair. His work brings together clinicians, fundamental scientists, engineers and other partners to translate biological discoveries towards therapeutic application.
Alongside his clinical and research activities, Dr. Buikema is actively involved in the education and supervision of medical students, PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers. He is committed to mentoring young clinicians and scientists and to fostering collaboration within the cardiovascular research community. Moreover, he is a nucleus member for the European Society of Cardiology working group on Myocardial Function.
His overarching aim is to bridge the gap between the laboratory and the clinic: using important questions arising from patient care to drive scientific discovery, and translating new biological insights into treatments that can improve outcomes for patients with heart failure.