Abstract

Ageing populations, changing lifestyles, growing healthcare costs, and an increasing demand for better quality of life are driving an unprecedented need for innovations in medical treatment. Innovative biomedical materials will help revolutionize the efficiency and efficacy of healthcare interventions.

The Top Institute BioMedical Materials (BMM, http://www.bmm-program.nl/) is a public-private partnership of universities, university medical centers, companies, charitable foundations and the Dutch government, dedicated to research and development of these innovative biomedical materials and their clinical application. This partnership is based on the vision that biomedical materials will play a key role in enabling the functional repair and regeneration of tissue.

BMM has built a portfolio of projects focused on research related to prevalent diseases in the cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and nephrology area and to the application areas of anti-inflammatory coatings, and targeted drug delivery. Each project addresses a clear clinical need and envisions specific biomedical materials breakthroughs. The projects comprise a multidisciplinary research effort, involving clinical researchers and technologists. The projects have been selected on the basis of their scientific quality, their impact on public healthcare, and on their economic and societal relevance.

Already some 40 partners have joined their research efforts in BMM, and these partners offer opportunities for education and careers, in academia and industry, for highly talented professionals, post-docs and PhD students.

Curriculum Vitae

Emiel Staring
Managing Director BMM

Emiel Staring graduated from the State University of Groningen, and received his PhD in Chemistry at that same university. In 1985 he started his career at the Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven, initially as research scientist and later as department head. In 1999 he moved to DSM Research in Geleen, where he acted as department head of a research group on chemistry and biotechnology. From 2001 until 2004 he was responsible for all R&D activities of DSM Coating Resins, a business group with its head office in Zwolle. In 2004 Emiel Staring returned to the DSM head office in Heerlen where he has held various research and technology management functions. In this capacity he initiated the BMM program, and he was appointed Managing Director of this program in 2007.

Curriculum Vitae

Joris Rotmans

Joris Rotmans studied Medicine at the Free University in Amsterdam. He did his PhD at the Department of Vascular Medicine of the AMC in Amsterdam in collaboration with the Department of Experimental Cardiology of the UMC in Utrecht. In 2004 he started his Internal Medicine residency at the AMC. In 2008-2009 he did postdoctoral research at the Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Brisbane. Subsequently he continued his residency in Internal Medicine at the LUMC. Currently, he combines clinical work at the Department of Nephrology with vascular and renal research within the Einthoven Laboratory of the LUMC. Recently, BMM decided to fund his DialysisXS program which aims to create new vascular accesses for hemodialysis.