Conference

Caitrín recently travelled to Munich, Germany, for the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation (ISRHML) conference, where researchers from around the world gathered to share their latest insights into the fascinating biology of human milk.

Hosted in the rather fitting surroundings of the old dissection theatre at Munich’s anatomy institute, the meeting was packed with exciting science and new perspectives on the many ways in which human milk intertwines maternal and infant health.

Caitrín returned to Amsterdam buzzing with ideas for DSCCB, where we are actively exploring human milk as a resource for developing new human-based models and uncovering more of the secrets of breast biology. Plenty to keep us busy!

14 October, 2026

Talk on stem cell research and regenerative medicine for high school students and their teachers

The University of Amsterdam hosted "Leve de Biologie", a day organized by Betapartners, during which high school teachers brought some of their most interested students for an overview of some of the life sciences research that is currently ongoing at Science Park (as well as globally in the wider working field).

We kicked off with an introductory lecture by Martijn Rep, who shared his excitement and sense of wonder for evolutionary conservation of developmental genes and processes. After that, our guests split up into two groups. One group joined Renée in the Sustainalab space in Matrix One for an interactive lecture on "Fundamenteel stamcelonderzoek en regeneratieve geneeskunde", where we managed to make it through the entire talk, covering a bit of WNT (of course), as well as embryonic, adult tissue, and induced pluripotent stem cells.

Given the multiple high quality, critical, curiosity driven questions from the VWO 5 and 6 students, the future of the life sciences looks bright!

8 October, 2026

Annual Weekend van de Wetenschap (national science weekend)

Science Park opened it’s doors again for the annual Weekend van de Wetenschap. Everything at Science Park 904 was bigger and better than ever, with multiple lectures, workshops and science fair booths from all the different disciplines in the national sciences set up throughout the main hall.


This year, Thijs, Renée and Lisa manned the DSCCB stand, featuring our regular mix of exciting live microscopy set ups, Harry Styles, and everything you have always wanted to know about breasts and basic biomedical research.


Meanwhile, Renée’s portrait was also hung across town as part of a line up to remove stereotypes about what a scientist looks like. Too bad about the glasses, but that’s more to do with age than stereotypical scientist nerdiness. The real live version was simultaneously wearing a very non stereotypical scientist Harry Styles t-shirt and bright colored sneakers!

3 October, 2026

Guest speaker from UCSF

Today we were happy and excited to host Tambinh Bui, a senior PhD student with our collaborator Laura van ’t Veer (shared with Jennifer Rosenbluth) at UCSF.

It was great to get to talk some inside breast (cancer) organoid business and a very inspiring start to the PhD projects of Lisa and Sophie.
Tambinh also gave a talk during our work discussion, presenting her exciting work and delivering a clear and insightful overview of (and detailed background to) the iSPY trial.

30 September, 2026

First CSB theme day

Together with colleagues from the Biosystems Data Analysis and Molecular and Cellular Epigenetic groups, Thijs and Caitrín co-organized the first Cell & Systems Biology theme day. We gathered at the Bushuis, one of the old university buildings in the center of town. The day was filled with short presentations from the different groups, including a bunch of exciting talks by PhD students and postdocs. The weather was nice enough to enjoy the coffee breaks outside along the canal with a view towards the Zuiderkerk looking all pretty against a bright blue sunny sky.

The mix of top notch science and advanced technology was interspersed with some original team building activities, including a speed dating session in the morning to get to know each other a bit better, and a collaborative Serious Lego exercise to reveal shared interests and new connections between different projects.

It was great to see the full scope of CSB at work, displaying the diversity of fundamental questions and topics, while sharing a clear and common interest in unraveling the dynamic complexity of biology across these different fields of application.


Left: Caitrín and Thijs making sure that everyone takes Serious Lego very seriously. Right: Despite the nice views towards the canal (with a passing bike captured for that true Dutch atmosphere) we managed to build a metaphorical Lego display that symbolizes some of our joint challenges and interests (yes, that is a magical delivery vehicle to help us climb the stairway to heaven to reach the stars - dream big or go home).

25 September, 2026

2026 DSCCB lab outing

We had our annual lab outing in Amsterdam Noord, where we first visited the small museum in the old bath house, which hosted a current exhibit on health care in the borough throughout the years, and where a museum guide told us multiple stories about the history of the neighborhood (who knew there used to be a tramline to Volendam). After that, Jasper took us on a walking tour of the area. Truth be told, we were happy when we made it to Café ’t Sluijsje (aptly named and situated right next to the locks on the Nieuwendammerdijk), because we got got in the worst downpour. We ended the day with drinks and cheese at Proeflokaal Kef.

It was a relaxed, fun and informative (if not soaking wet) day!


literally the worst line up and text cut off for a group photo ever but it was cold and rainy and it is the thought that counts.

17 September, 2026

Mark your calendars for the 2027 International Dutch Embryo Model Meeting

Thijs is on the organising committee of the 2027 International Dutch Embryo Model Meeting. The meeting will be held on 13-14 May 2027 in the Accelerator Auditorium, Utrecht, the Netherlands.

This years theme is: “The future in the making: next steps in embryo model research".

So mark your calendars, we hear Utrecht is lovely that time of year.

15 September, 2026

Welcome to Lisa and Sophie!

Two new PhD students started over the summer.

Lisa will work on the recently awarded KWF project "Targeting the WNT/CTNNB1 pathway in breast cancer". She will be co-supervised by Renée and Caitrín.

Sophie will work on a starters grant, which we will put to good use to improve human based model systems for breast (cancer) biology research. She will be co-supervised by Caitrín and Renée.

Welcome to both!

15 September, 2026

Look at us being all productive...

...and it is only Tuesday!

We have already submitted three grant applications this week. Not to jinx anything, but we think they are all worthy. May the funding gods be in our favour.

Fingers crossed!

15 September, 2026

News flash

Our recent publication "GRHL and PGR control WNT4 expression via 3D looping of conserved and species-specific enhancers" was highlighted on the news page of the Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences. Read it here.

8 September, 2026

Start of the new academic year

And just like that, summer is over (meteorologically at least) and students are back on campus for the new academic year. For us, teaching started right away with the DSCCB staff being involved in (and coordinating) multiple BSc and MSc courses from September through December.
We kicked off with Frontiers in Medical Biology I, which means back to teaching some fun wet lab practicals!

7 September, 2026

Visit to Manchester

Renée was invited to give a talk at the Manchester Breast Centre. Hosted by Rob Clarke, it was an inspiring visit with a fully packed schedule that allowed Renée to talk to many people, including old (as in "have known for while", no ageism here) faces (Hannah Harrison, Bruno Simoes, Sacha Howell) and new faces (Frances Turrell, William Hill and 5 early career scientists from the Clarke and Turrell labs who took time out of their experiments to have lunch with the seminar speaker).

Much WNT and exciting breast cancer (prevention) research was discussed was talked about. On top of that, it turned out that our most recent Cell Reports paper had been dissected in the local journal club just recently. It is always good to hear that at least someone has read your hard work, so thank you for that - and send your critique and questions this way!

21 July, 2026

That is a first: AI digest of our recent paper

How does one gene know exactly when to switch on?

The kind people over at Genexplain (whose Transfac software we used at earlier stages of the project before we got better at doing bioinformatics ourselves and whose databases I must say are still a very good complement to whatever you can do yourself - and no we are not getting paid to say that, so we no longer afford ourselves the subscription) posted an AI digest on LinkedIn to advertise our WNT4 paper. It reads like a press release, so here it is:

9 July, 2026

New publication out in Cell Reports

Once we got to the proof stage, things moved swiftly: Our study “GRHL and PGR control WNT4 expression via 3D looping of conserved and species-specific enhancers” is now available online and will officially appear in the July issue of Cell Reports.

We are equally excited and relieved that this work is finally out, since it is the result of more than a decade of work to resolve how the expression of a single gene (here: WNT4) is regulated to ensure its tight spatiotemporal control.
Driven by the combined efforts of four shared first authors (former PhD students Yorick van de Grift, Marleen Aarts, Nika Heijmans and former postdoc Katrin Wiese), the study focuses on two main questions: 1) How is a systemic hormone signal (here: progesterone) ultimately translated into a local, paracrine signaling response and 2) How do the molecular mechanisms (chromatin folding and transcription factor binding) compare between mice and humans? To answer these questions, we integrate genetically engineered mouse models, molecular cell biology approaches and (single cell) multi-omics data to arrive at a working model that explains how DNA folding, chromatin accessibility and transcription factor binding cooperate to allow both progesterone-dependent and -independent WNT4 gene regulation via 3D chromatin looping.

This paper really has been a long time coming: The work was initiated in 2014, when Renée was awarded an NWO VIDI grant, and has since given rise to a solid research line on tissue-specific WNT signaling. All is well that ends well, but what a journey this has been!

Given the interplay between conserved and species-specific enhancer elements, the study also exposes the need for improved model systems to faithfully recapitulate the dynamic biology of mammalian tissues across different scales of complexity: at present, breast (cancer) biology researchers can only study developmental processes such as puberty and pregnancy in vivo, using mice, but this only recapitulates some aspects of the human biology.

If you want to read the social media digest of this story, then please check out this thread on Bluesky

30 June, 2026

Lego link

Last week, Folia published a piece on the use of Lego for teaching in academia. The piece referred to this earlier interview with Caitrín on the TLC website, where she talked about using serious Lego for her new course "Engineering Mammalian Systems".

1 June, 2026

iDEMM 2026

Thijs chaired a session and presented a poster at the 2026 International Dutch Embryo Model Meeting (iDEMM), which was held in Utrecht. As the lab built a strong network in this vibrant scientific community over the past few years, we are also excited that Thijs will be co-organizing the 2027 iDEMM edition!

8 May, 2026

Another PhD student vacancy has opened in the lab!

Thanks to the award of a sector plan starter grant awarded to Caitrín, we are able to recruit another PhD student! The goal of this project is to improve human breast organoid technology, and will help to further strengthen our breast (cancer) biology research line.

Check out the vacancy here and make sure to also apply via the link in the vacancy. All applications must be submitted via the system in order to be processed.

25 March, 2026

No you are not seeing double: another manuscript accepted for publication (in principle)

After more than a decade of work, we are happy to report that our manuscript in which we dissect the Wnt4/WNT4 enhancer network in the mouse mammary gland and the human breast, has been accepted for publication (in principle) by Cell Reports.

So, Van de Grift & Aarts & Wiese & Heijmans et al. should soon be available somewhere in its final format. As soon as I get rid of the surplus text that was added to provide the appropriate amount of detail and nuance...

Thanks so much to everyone who was adventurous and tenacious enough to start, continue and finish this journey throughout the years. It is really not sustainable to stretch out a single story across multiple PhD and postdoc projects, but sometimes it really takes that long to understand something. This will forever be colloquially known as our "Cell Paper" (at least it will get the Cell Press layout) and it is one of the most exciting things Renée has been a part of since starting as a scientist.

25 March, 2026

new publication: Mechanistic dissection of GRHL2 and PR transcriptional co-regulation in breast cells

One of Marleen’s PhD thesis chapters has been accepted for publication in PLOS Genetics! It will be out on Monday and is then available by clicking on this link.
Using mass spectrometry to identify the progesterone receptor interactome in breast cancer cells, Aarts et al. identifies the GRHL2 transcription factor as a PGR binding protein, and goes on to investigate if and how PGR and GRHL co-regulate genes in the context of the 3D genome.
This study was the lab’s first use of a mass spectrometry approach - so thank you to Gertjan Kramer and colleagues. It also was our first official collaboration with the lab of Claudio Cantù in Sweden, resulting in our first CUT&RUN datasets! All that and exciting new insights into gene regulation wrapped into one - so check it out!

20 March, 2026

We are hiring: New vacancy for a PhD student to work on KWF project

We are recruiting a PhD student to work on our recently funded KWF research project.
All of the details can be found in the vacancy, which is posted here.

Note that all applications must be submitted through the official vacancy website in order to be processed and considered.

9 March, 2026

new publication: meeting report of the 2025 International Dutch Embryo Model Meeting

The meeting report of the 2025 International Dutch Embryo Model Meeting is now out and accessible to all in Biology Open via this link. The piece was co-written by all of the NWO-XL PhD students, including Jeske and Joëlle and found a great home with the Company of Biologists, who co-sponsored the event.

30 January, 2026

DSCCB participates in the FNWI DeepTech day 2026

The lab was well represented and actively involved at the first DeepTech day of the Faculty of Science. Meant to showcase our research and innovation across different areas (including the life sciences and biotech), but above all to connect our scientists with policymakers, investors and industry the event was designed to be high energy - and it lived up to its expectation.

Caitrín was the face of our lab at the DSCCB booth, where we showcased our new approach methodologies as "organoids for health innovation". Our pink neon sign shone brightly and our new glossy flyers were hot off the press to launch our "Build the future: Adopt a scientist" campaign.

Thijs pitched our pre-incubation stage valorization efforts towards developing a predictive molecular diagnostic tool for targeting WNT/CTNNB1 signaling in breast cancer in a parallel session on knowledge and technology transfer. First time we presented this work in front of a bigger audience from a valorization perspective, and an excellent way to test the waters and see what questions would be thrown at us. We got useful input that will help us to refine our pitch and business case and also made some exciting connections just in time for our Biotech Booster level 1 application.

Renée chaired the final plenary session of the day. This was an interactive panel discussion around the theme "From Deep Tech Research to Impact", with Constantijn van Oranje (special envoy of TechLeap), Peter Paul Verbeek (rector magnificus at the UvA), Emilia Olsson (group leader at ARCNL) and Renée Frissen (who co-wrote the National AI Deltaplan).

We definitely felt a bit of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial spirit seep in. We hope it will linger and are inspired to move forward, strengthened by the knowledge that Deep Tech is, by definition, steeped in basic research and lengthy research and development trajectories.

28 January, 2026

Amsterdam UMC Reproduction & Development grant

Together with Callista Mulder (lead applicant), an assistant professor at the Amsterdam UMC whose research focuses on reproductive biology and male infertility, Thijs was awarded an AR&D (Amsterdam Reproduction & Development) research grant. This will enable a new collaboration, in which Thijs and Callista will use the gastruloid model to study primordial germ cell formation. More specifically, this proof-of-principle study will address important gaps in our understanding of how PFAS may disrupt human germline development and pose risks to future generations.

Gastruloids are embryonic stem cell–derived model systems that recapitulate the earliest stages of development, roughly comparable to 2–3 weeks of human gestation. Just as in a real embryo, these gastruloids form and set aside the future germ cells at an early stage. This is where the interests of Thijs and Callista come together: the gastruloid model may provide a means to investigate the earliest developmental origins of human reproductive biology and could even be used to understand how our environment contributes to widespread declining fertility.

The work that is planned has direct relevance for society: A growing concern is exposure to environmental toxins during this early and sensitive stage of development. PFAS, often referred to as a “forever chemical” is a key example. It is highly persistent, poorly degradable, and accumulates in the human body. Worryingly, it was recently discovered that the Dutch population carries high concentrations of PFAS in their blood. In this AR&D-funded project, Thijs and Callista will set out to use human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived gastruloids and expose them experimentally during critical windows of germ cell formation. This will allow them to study the effect of PFAS on germline formation and epigenetic reprogramming, an essential process at the start of germ cell formation.

15 January, 2026

KWF grant awarded

We could not have wished for a better Christmas present or way to end the year with a bang: This week we learned that Renée’s grant application "Targeting the WNT/CTNNB1 pathway in breast cancer" was awarded by KWF kankerbestrijding (the Dutch Cancer Society).

This also means that we will be hiring a PhD student and a bioinformatician in the upcoming months!

This project will be a continuation of our last KWF project grant (awarded in 2017), which allowed us to study if and how the WNT pathway is deregulated in human cancer. We are now moving one step further: While there is still a lot of fundamental work to be done, our next grant will also allows us to test if we can now predict which breast cancer patients will respond to a specific WNT pathway intervention.

Thijs and Caitrín are co-PIs on the grant. We are also looking forward to collaborating with other colleagues in the Netherlands and abroad, including Jos Jonkers (NKI).
Exciting times ahead!

We are especially excited that our project was one of 21 research proposals selected to be funded by the proceeds from Alpe d’Huzes.

19 December, 2025

Oratie now also available in PDF and on You Tube

Renée’s oratie is now officially available in written form via UvA DARE via this link. Check it out, because it includes extra bonus material!

The original recording hosted by the UvA will expire after a month, so here is a permanent link to the oratie on You Tube:

6 December, 2025

Oratie Renée

On Thursday 20 November Renée delivered her oratie, or inaugural address "Life, actually: over taaie systemen en bonte details" in the Aula of the Universiteit of Amsterdam.
Thanks to the lab for keeping the show on the road while Renée took some much needed time in the past few weeks to write and tweak the whole thing and thanks to all the guests who came to the ceremony and reception, including a bunch of Biomedical Sciences students.

Those who missed it can still watch it via this link.

And with that, the appointment as Hoogleraar Fundamenteel Stamcel- en Kankeronderzoek (Professor of Stem Cell and Cancer Biology) is officially official. Back to business!

PS: The 45 minute lecture will soon also become available as a PDF and will be published by the UvA university library on UvA DARE. Once it is done, the link will be made available here as well.

20 November, 2025

Joëlle attends workshop by the Company of Biologists

Joëlle was selected to take part in a workshop "New Technologies for Studying and Reprogramming Development", organized by the Company of Biologists and held at Buxted Park in East Sussex, UK. Supported with a travel grant by the Stichting Biochemie, and with an amazing line up of speakers, this was a great opportunity to get input on our own work and to discuss the challenges associated with integrating multi-modal datasets at single-cell resolution.

18 November, 2025

Congratulations dr. Aarts!

On Friday 14 November Marleen defended her PhD thesis "Navigating progesterone-driven gene regulatory networks in the mammary gland" in the Aula of the University of Amsterdam.

Marleen is the sixth PhD student of the lab to defend her thesis, but this is the first time that both the promotor (Renée) and co-promotor (Thijs) came from our own Developmental, Stem Cell and Cancer Biology group. A joyous occasion on may different levels!

Marleen gave a very nice lekenpraatje, comparing gene regulatory networks to switches in a factory and did a very good job during the defense, resulting in a lively discussion with the five opponents.

A special thanks to Dr. Cathrin Brisken to traveling to Amsterdam from Switzerland to join us for the event.


Left: Marleen receives the official diploma from Thijs.
Right: Marleen with proud promotor and co-promotor.

14 November, 2025

Proof of concept grant from IXA awarded

We are excited to report that Renée and Thijs received a Proof of Concept grant from IXA. After lengthy discussions with our technology transfer office and patent lawyers, the award of this grant will help us to try and obtain proof of concept in an effort to strengthen a patent application.

We are one step closer to bringing our findings on WNT signaling in breast cancer from bench to bedside. So far it has been an educational and informative journey and we still have a ways to go (we are already thinking about the next steps) but this is a step in the right direction and a very exciting development for the lab as this is quite a new adventure!

12 November, 2025

PAN podium: Art in the university

At the invitation of the Amsterdams Universiteitsfonds, who previously sponsored our artist in residence program, Renée was invited to take part in a panel discussion at the PAN Art Fair, a large annual art, antiques and design fair at the RAI convention center in Amsterdam. The fair also hosts PAN podium, "a space to be inspired, to connect, to enjoy, and to exchange knowledge" - or, in other words: a forum for discussion of all things art and arts related.

Chaired by Kornelis Fragakis, art curator at TU Delft, Renée joined Babette van den Broek (TU Delft), Jom Luiten (TU Eindhoven) and artist Simone Ho&grava;ng to talk about the collaboration and synergy of art and science.

This was also a nice opportunity to try out the Fishbowl format, which invites members of the public seated in an outer ring to join the inner ring and take active part in the discussion, ensuring that multiple points of view can be heard.

4 November, 2025

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