Netherlands Rotterdam

Erasmus MC-Sophia

Pediatric Surgery

Brief Overview

The Erasmus MC is committed to a healthy population and excellence in healthcare through research and education, with a broad expertise in various fundamental and clinical research fields.
The mission of Pediatric Surgery is to provide the best emergency and follow-up care for children with congenital anatomical malformations and critically ill children by continuously improving patient care and treatment.
The departmental overarching research focus on normal and abnormal lung development, in combination with (pre)clinical research, is dedicated to develop new therapies and predictive models of risk assessment for children with congenital anomalies or critically ill patients.

Research Areas

Cell biology\Epithelial cell\Molecular biology\Paediatrics\Pulmonary hypertension

Host center eligibility

Global fellowships (return phase only)\ European fellowships

Research infrastructure/facilities

Pediatric surgery has access to several core facilities: Erasmus Centre for Animal Research, Erasmus Optical Imaging centre (confocal and live imaging technology), Genomics (RNA-Seq, ChIP-seq, etc), iPS facility (generation of patient-derived iPSCs) and Proteomics (mass spectrometry).
The lab has developed expertise in advanced techniques related to developmental and molecular biology (e.g.. embryonic lung explants, mouse models, lineage tracing in mice, whole mount lung immunostaining, isolation of primary lung cells, culture of organoids, tissue explant cultures, etc.).
lastly, the lab is embedded within the department of Cell Biology, giving access to high-tech molecular tools.

Research funding/Resources

The department is leading in several (clinical) ERNs, NWO (Dutch Scientific Organization) funding, Dutch Longfonds, several local (Erasmus MC, Sophia) funding schemes (SSWO, Mrace)

Links to non-academic sector

Erasmus University (business school), contacts and collaborations with several SMEs are in place

Experience hosting international researchers, career development & training programmes, outreach activities

The department has had many international researchers, both postdoc and PhD students, over the past 25 years.
PhD student program is mandatory as part of the training, multiple elective courses are available through the Medical Genetic Centre, career development, mentoring, teaching.
The department is involved in programs of the Erasmus MC graduate school which offers training through research masters and PhD programs. The department has been actively involved in European and national education of research in pediatric pharmacology (NKFK, ESPNIC, PEDDY and C4C networks.) and nutrition & metabolism (Life Long Learning program Pediatrics of the European Society Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ESPEN)).
Outreach activities to patient/parent organizations, participation in Sophia Research Day and other public activities.

HR Excellence in Research – EU award

Yes

Contact persons