Professor Dr Luc van der Laan 

As Head of the LETIS laboratory he is dedicated to pioneering research in regenerative medicine and organ transplantation. His academic journey commenced in Amsterdam, where he studied Biology at the University of Amsterdam and completed his PhD in Immunology at the VU in 1998. With over 240 international peer-reviewed publications, he has garnered numerous national and international scientific awards including the ILTS Basic Science Award.

He mentored numerous graduates and PhD students. His team has made significant contributions to the field, including advancements of patient-specific organoids for modeling liver cancer (Acta Biomater. 2023, Nat. Med. 2018), elucidating novel pathways involved in branching morphogenesis in bile duct organoids (Cell Stem Cell 2022), and pioneering advanced decellularization methodologies for extracting extracellular matrix from human liver, bile duct, and tumor tissue (Biomater. 2022, Mater. Sci. Eng. C. 2020). His professional aspirations center on unlocking the potential of regenerative medicine utilizing organoids and biomaterials for liver diseases and the advancement of liver transplantation.