dr. ir. Willeke Daamen

About Willeke Daamen

My research focuses on matrix therapy in regenerative medicine, concentrating on cell-free biodegradable biomaterials that stimulate the endogenous healing process of soft tissues and organs by their interaction with cells. The main objective is to engineer defined cellular micro-environments with specific biomolecular composition, 3D architecture and biomechanical properties that attract cells and, after cellular infiltration, stimulate cell differentiation to regenerate the affected tissues/organs. Clinical focus is on regeneration of soft tissues, including skeletal muscle, skin and hollow/tubular organs (e.g. urethra). To enable a rapid implementation into the clinic, the focus lies on acellular biomaterials to circumvent the demanding step of isolation and culturing of (patient) cells. My research has clearly contributed to the concept that the extracellular matrix directs organ formation. Additionally, my group has developed technologies to evaluate tissue-inducing scaffolds, including the specific detection of newly synthesized collagen and application of gene expression analysis in regenerative medicine, which are key for making proper choices for (pre-)clinical development.