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Professorship Julie Staals

Professorship Julie Staals

22 April 2024

Dr Julie Staals (Dept. of Neurology) has been appointed as professor 'Neurovascular disease' as of 1 April 2024.

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ERC Advanced Grant awarded to Prof. Andy Baker

ERC Advanced Grant awarded to Prof. Andy Baker

15 April 2024

Prof. Andy Baker (Dept of Pathology) has been awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant of €2,5M for his research project PolymiRize: Poly-miRNA targeting to prevent and reverse complex tissue remodelling after acute cardiovascular events'.

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Carim Maastricht
Carim Maastricht

Paul Volders

Professor

Prof. Paul Volders, CARIM Principal Investigator and Cardiologist, coordinates the cardiogenetic care of patients with inherited cardiomyopathies, including those with inherited arrhythmias, at Maastricht UMC+. Within this clinical-experimental environment, the active research projects of his PI team focus on novel pathogenetic insights and improved management of ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac arrest.

Paul Volders defended his PhD thesis 'Cellular Mechanisms of Acquired Torsades de Pointes in the Hypertrophied Canine Heart: The Substrate and the Trigger' in Maastricht in 1999 (cum laude). Since 2015 he is Professor of Genetic Cardiology.

Traditionally, the Volders team has focussed on the electrophysiological characterisation of arrhythmia substrates in inherited cardiomyopathies and in acquired cardiac overload, compensated hypertrophy and failure. While these studies continue at the cellular, intact-animal and patient level, increasing research activities are directed to:


(1) intracellular signaling pathways determining ion-channel function;
(2) the genetic and genomic basis of cardiac arrhythmias; and
(3) systems biology to integrate the basic molecular and functional determinants of arrhythmia syndromes with the clinical characteristics of individual patients, to provide better risk management and treatment.

The group has active research connections with other CARIM PI groups and many international colleagues.

Prof. Paul Volders is a past ZonMw Veni and Vidi laureate, and a Dutch Heart Foundation Junior-Staff member. Currently, he participates as work-package leader in the CVON Consortium Project PREDICT, on predicting sudden cardiac arrest, and he is the research leader of the CVON Consortium Project VIGILANCE, on idiopathic ventricular fibrillation. Several of his team members achieved personal grants (ZonMw Veni, Dutch Heart Foundation junior postdoc). Besides, he ran multiple investigator-initiated studies that were funded by industry. He is a past-chairman of the ESC Working Group on Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology (2012-2014), and a past Working-Group Representative at the Board of the European Heart Rhythm Association (2011-2018).

He is (co-)author on 90 scientific articles, with 5673citations and H-index of 39.

Paul-volders

Department of Cardiology
P. Debyelaan 25, 6229 HX Maastricht 
PO Box 5800, 6202 AZ Maastricht
Room number: 3.C2.025
T: +31(0)43 387 51 06

  • 2024
    • Verheul, L. M., Hoeksema, W. F., Groeneveld, S. A., Mulder, B. A., Bootsma, M., Alings, M., Evertz, R., Blank, A. C., Kammeraad, J. A. E., Clur, S.-A. B., Yap, S.-C., Postema, P. G., Wilde, A. A. M., Volders, P. G. A., & Hassink, R. J. (2024). Comparing Adolescent- and Adult-Onset Unexplained Cardiac Arrest - Results from the Dutch Idiopathic VF registry. Heart Rhythm. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrthm.2024.03.031
    • Verheul, L. M., Guglielmo, M., Groeneveld, S. A., Kirkels, F. P., Scrocco, C., Cramer, M. J., Bootsma, M., Kapel, G. F. L., Alings, M., Evertz, R., Mulder, B. A., Prakken, N. H. J., Balt, J. C., Volders, P. G. A., Hirsch, A., Yap, S. C., Postema, P. G., Nijveldt, R., Velthuis, B. K., ... Hassink, R. J. (2024). Mitral Annular Disjunction in Idiopathic Ventricular Fibrillation Patients: Just a Bystander or a Potential Cause?European Heart Journal Cardiovascular Imaging. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeae054
    • Stevens, R. R. F., Hazelaar, C., Bogowicz, M., Ter Bekke, R. M. A., Volders, P. G. A., Verhoeven, K., de Ruysscher, D., Verhoeff, J. J. C., Fast, M. F., Mandija, S., Cvek, J., Knybel, L., Dvorak, P., Blanck, O., & van Elmpt, W. (2024). A Framework for Assessing the Effect of Cardiac and Respiratory Motion for Stereotactic Arrhythmia Radioablation Using a Digital Phantom With a 17-Segment Model: A STOPSTORM.eu Consortium Study. International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, 118(2), 533-542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrobp.2023.08.059
  • 2023
    • Verheul, L. M., van der Ree, M. H., Groeneveld, S. A., Mulder, B. A., Christiaans, I., Kapel, G. F. L., Alings, M., Bootsma, M., Barge-Schaapveld, D. Q. C. M., Balt, J. C., Yap, S.-C., Krapels, I. P. C., Ter Bekke, R. M. A., Volders, P. G. A., van der Crabben, S. N., Postema, P. G., Wilde, A. A. M., Dooijes, D., Baas, A. F., & Hassink, R. J. (2023). The genetic basis of apparently idiopathic ventricular fibrillation: a retrospective overview. EP Europace, 25(11), Article euad336. https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euad336
    • Kaya, Y. S., Stoks, J., Gommers, S., Holtackers, R. J., Duijsings, R., Vernooy, K., Volders, P., & Ter Bekke, R. (2023). Optimal pixel signal intensity threshold for the assessment of endocardial left-ventricular scar by 3D dark blood MRI compared to bipolar voltage electro-anatomical mapping. European Heart Journal, 44.
    • Bergeman, A. T. J., Hoeksema, W. F. N., van der Ree, M. H., Boersma, L. V. A., Yap, S.-C., Verheul, L. M. G., Hassink, R. J., van der Crabben, S. N., Volders, P. G. A., van der Werf, C., Wilde, A. A. M. G., Postema, P. G., & European Reference Network for rare, low prevalence and complex diseases of the heart: ERN GUARD-Heart (2023). Outcomes in Dutch DPP6 risk haplotype for familial idiopathic ventricular fibrillation: a focused update. Netherlands Heart Journal, 31(7-8), 309-314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-023-01792-1
    • Meier, S., Grundland, A., Dobrev, D., Volders, P. G. A., & Heijman, J. (2023). In silico analysis of the dynamic regulation of cardiac electrophysiology by K(v)11.1 ion-channel trafficking. The Journal of Physiology, 601(13), 2711-2731. https://doi.org/10.1113/JP283976
    • Isaacs, A., Barysenka, A., ter Bekke, R. M. A., den Enden, A. T. J. M. H., van den Wijngaard, A., Volders, P. G. A., & Stoll, M. (2023). Standing genetic variation affects phenotypic heterogeneity in an SCN5A-mutation founder population with excess sudden cardiac death. Heart Rhythm, 20(5), 720-727. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrthm.2023.02.004
    • Cluitmans, M. J. M., Bayer, J., Bear, L. R., Ter Bekke, R. M. A., Heijman, J., Coronel, R., & Volders, P. G. A. (2023). The circle of reentry: Characteristics of trigger-substrate interaction leading to sudden cardiac arrest. Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine, 10, Article 1121517. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2023.1121517
    • Stoks, J., Bear, L. R., Vijgen, J., Dendale, P., Peeters, R., Volders, P. G. A., & Cluitmans, M. J. M. (2023). Understanding repolarization in the intracardiac unipolar electrogram: A long-lasting controversy revisited. Frontiers in physiology, 14, Article 1158003. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2023.1158003
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