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Honours students from complementary scientific disciplines collaborated to improve immunotherapy for brain cancer. In the first edition of this 20-week interdisciplinary student-led project, cutting-edge research was performed at the Biomedicine and Biotechnology Student Research Hubs, all at the medicine and beta sciences faculties on the Utrecht Science Park.

Preparing for tomorrow's healthcare. We do this at UMC Utrecht by focusing on educational innovations and activities within six current themes of our educational strategy 'The New Utrecht School'. One theme is Translational Medicine & Life Sciences. Colleague Marco van Brussel, Medical Physiologist and Associate Professor of Medical Education, is an ambassador* of this theme and explains.

Coming up with a solution for the rare heart disease SCAD. And then actually implement your idea to help women with this disease. The students were allowed to do this in the Women's Heart Challenge. They presented their findings in the presence of patients, researchers, physicians, and family members of the students. (text in Dutch)

Niels and Noor talk about the health challenge: woman's heart. Click the link below to go to the video and skip to 22 minutes and 49 seconds

Person-centred care. How do we give substance to this in the cycle of 'understanding together, deciding together, looking back together and improving together'? This was the subject of the sixth symposium on Patient Participation together with patients and healthcare professionals. During the symposium, outgoing chairman Margriet Schneider was put in the spotlight. "If anyone has done a lot for patient participation, it's you."

A new concept of public-private partnerships. This is the collaboration between a group of bachelor's students of Biomedical Sciences and biotechnology company Genmab. Together, they conduct research into new therapeutic targets for cancer. It is so promising that Top Sector Life Sciences & Health (Health~Holland), together with UMC Utrecht and Genmab, is funding more than 120,000 euros for this research. The final presentation of the bachelor's students took place on 2 February.

In October 2022, more than 400 students of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences were challenged with the Long COVID challenge. The goal: to take research into the causes of Long-COVID a step further. At the time – and still today – there was insufficient biomedical research into the causes of Long COVID. The best idea is now being implemented in the Bachelor Research Hub of UMC Utrecht by sixteen students. Watch the video about the challenge and watch the item about it in the Executive Board webinar update of 8 June.

By stimulating Medicine and Biomedical Sciences students to work together on scientific research early in their education, we can better address complex social problems. That is what Professor Niels Bovenschen stated in his inaugural lecture, which he gave yesterday in Utrecht University's Academy Building. Read more about his educational model in this interview. Your lecture is titled: Synergy between education, research and society. Why is that synergy important?

In October 2022, more than 400 students of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences were challenged with the Long-COVID challenge. The goal: to take research into the causes of Long-COVID a step further. At the time – and still today – there was insufficient biomedical research into the causes of Long-COVID. The best idea has been researched over the past ten weeks in the Bachelor Research Hub of UMC Utrecht. They shared the results on June 30.

Students of biomedical sciences and medicine will investigate in the laboratory whether the interaction between autoantibodies and immune cells plays a role in the development of Long-COVID symptoms such as fatigue, muscle pain and reduced muscle strength.

“Education linked to biomedical research with the patient central. Education in which the students work together in an interdisciplinary way and work practically (also in the lab) with complex socially relevant challenges in health care" "It is education based on the ambition of De Nieuwe Utrechtse School"

Niels Bovenschen has been appointed Professor of Biomedical Research-based Education at the Faculty of Medicine as of 15 October. The emphasis of his chair is on education and aims to.. (text in Dutch)

Dr. Niels Bovenschen and Michael Schakelaar talk more about a new form of education that they devised for third-year students of Biomedical sciences, in which multidisciplinary collaboration takes place.

Niels Bovenschen en Michael Schakelaar see synergy with other disciplines as the future of education (Text in dutch).

Undergraduate Biomedical Sciences students at UMC Utrecht discovered a way that might make immunotherapy against medulloblastoma - an aggressive brain tumour that mainly occurs in children - possible in the future. In a new form of education, 12 students have been immersed in a Bachelor Research Hub research project for 10 weeks and discovered leads for immunotherapy against this tumour. A great result, according to coordinator Niels Bovenschen and student Matthias Quist. “This tumour desperately needs new treatment. This could be a starting point for it. ” (text in Dutch)

By correctly combining teaching with research practice, PhD students not only become better teachers, but also better researchers, argue Floris Valentijn and Niels Bovenschen. They argue for a hybrid PhD trajectory. (text in Dutch)

In order to continue to innovate and improve education, Utrecht University annually makes money available for innovative projects that contribute to the development of academic education. The assessment committee of the Utrecht Education Stimulation Fund (USO) has selected six cross-faculty projects that focus on: interdisciplinarity, education for professionals, laboratory education, learning analytics, intercultural competences and selection.

To facilitate transdisciplinary challenge-based education in Translational Medicine the implementation of a network of Bachelor Research Hubs is envisioned. This network will open possibilities to facilitate undergraduate students from different disciplines to work simultaneously on the same wicked and urgent societal problem within Translational Medicine from different perspectives.

How do we get rid of PLN? Patients, doctors and researchers challenge third-year students to better understand this hereditary heart muscle disease and to come up with research proposals that will bring us closer to therapy. “I am flabbergasted. These are great potential solutions. ”(text in Dutch)

Medulloblastomas are malignant brain tumours that mainly occur in young children. The standard therapy currently given is surgery followed by radiation and chemotherapy. Immunotherapy is a relatively new form of therapy and is aimed at activating the immune system to attack cancer cells. This research may in the future lead to a new form of immunotherapy for the treatment of medulloblastoma in children. (full text in Dutch)