19 nov 2025
Friday november 7, a team of students won the Health Challenge, an annual event where more than 600 students from different study programs worked together to find solutions for a complex health problem. This year, the spotlight was on PLN-R14del, a rare genetic heart disease.
Our colleagues Renée Maas, Joost Sluijter, Jort van der Geest, and Francesca Stillitano supported the teams, helping students with their questions and research ideas.
The winning team, called “Editing the Beat,” presented an innovative plan to deliver gene therapy directly to the heart by using extracellular vesicles. The PLN foundation donated €20,000 to carry out this research proposal in the bachelors course Experimental Translational Medicine, coordinated by Niels Boverschen. This will take place at the Bachelor Research hub, a laboratory for students within the research groups and clinics of the UMC Utrecht.