We are delighted to share that Dr. Jelte van der Vaart, a postdoctoral researcher in our lab, has been awarded the prestigious NWO Veni grant for his project “Adrenocortical organoids as human endocrinology avatars”.
This three-year grant will enable Jelte to develop the first human adrenocortical organoid models to study how hormone producing cells in the adrenal gland change identity and function. By recreating the adrenal cortex in vitro, his work will provide new insights into the molecular signals that regulate hormone production and control cell transitions between specialised zones. These processes are central to maintaining endocrine health, yet remain poorly understood in humans due to limitations of animal models.
The project will be conducted at the UMC Utrecht, within the Center for Molecular Medicine, and will combine advanced organoid culture with molecular and spatial profiling approaches. In the long term, the findings may provide a basis for improved diagnosis and treatment of conditions such as Cushing syndrome and other hormonal disorders.
We are proud to see this new research direction grow in our laboratory. Jelte’s expertise in organoid technology, combined with the lab’s strengths in molecular signalling and cancer biology, has made this success possible. The NWO Veni programme supports exceptional early career researchers in developing innovative, independent research, and we look forward to the contributions this project will bring to the field.