Bachelor Student Prize Winner

Eighteen students completed their bachelor's degree in 2020 with a thesis that was labelled ‘excellent’ by their faculty. Here you will find a short introduction to these excellent theses in the form of an "elevator pitch" from each student, plus a video in which the supervisor briefly addresses the lucky winner.

Esther Schouwenaar

 Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences | Bachelor Health Sciences

"'Defining the influence of miR-30d-3p on the angiogenic capacity of cardiac endothelial cells in vitro and in vivo"

Esther's elevator pitch 
The transition of adaptive cardiac hypertrophy to heart failure is characterized by impaired angiogenesis, resulting in capillary rarefaction of the myocardium and leading to cardiac dysfunction. 

MicroRNAs are pivotal in negatively regulating post-transcriptional activity by fine-tuning mRNA levels. Research in cancer suggested miR-30d as important regulator of cell migration, invasion and proliferation, three hallmark events of endothelial cells in the process of angiogenesis. 

The proposed research aims at investigating the mechanism of miR-30d-3p related to the angiogenic capacity of cardiac endothelial cells in heart failure, by clarifying miR function and target genes via in vitro/in vivo miR-30d-3p expression level modulation, human and mouse heart failure samples, and 2D in vitro models.​