Jeroen Leijten
Professor at University of Twente,
President of the Dutch Society for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering
Netherlands
Jeroen Leijten is a professor at University of Twente. After earning his PhD-degree, he performed postdoctoral studies at KU Leuven, Harvard, and MIT.
His interdisciplinary research group focuses on the development of nano- and microscale tools using enabling technologies to drive the scalable production of multiscale bioengineered constructs for tissue-engineering and biomedical applications. He has developed cutting edge biomaterials and technological platforms for the generation of micromaterials that enable the biofabrication of multiscale hierarchical tissue constructs that guide stem cell behavior at the nano, micro, and macro scale in a spatiotemporally controlled manner. His lab has a specialized focus on realizing the integration of engineered tissues within the living host. This includes the generation of metabolism supporting micromaterials to bridge the implant’s prevascular phase, novel strategies to create anastomosed blood vessel networks, and design and optimization of biomaterial strategies to guide bodily acceptance of the implant. Moreover, to rapidly create large implants he made various innovations in the field of 3D bioprinting including bioxolography and ATPS-stabilized low viscosity bioprinting.
He has raised >16M€ for his laboratory in the last few years, valorized several patents, and authored >100 peer reviewed journal articles including Nature Communication, Cell Stem Cell, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, and PNAS, of which 22 were featured on the journal’s front cover. He received numerous recognitions including ERC Starting, Veni, and Vidi Grants.
He was recognized twice by the popular science magazine New Scientist as ‘top 10 North European Young Scientific Talent’, elected member of the Young Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science, is the current president of the Dutch Society for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, and received the Jean Leray Award (ESB), and Robert Brown Award (TERMIS).
