Hubrecht Institute

Today, Giulia Ricci successfully defended her PhD thesis. Congratulations! 🎉 She established that CAF-1 is essential in safeguarding epigenome integrity and cell replication. Read more via www.hubrecht.eu/phd-ricci/

Team CAUSE with Juan Garaycoechea and @puckknipscheer.bsky.social has been selected to receive a @cancergrand.bsky.social award to tackle the mechanisms driving mutational signatures challenge. Congratulations! https://www.hubrecht.eu/cgc-team-cause/ #CancerGrandChallenges

organoid fluorescence image

Colon with a magnifying glass, magnifying cancer cells in the colon.

Colon with bacteria

Can gut bacteria cause mutations in the human colon? Axel Rosendahl Huber can now explore this question thanks to a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action Postdoctoral Fellowship. Read more about his project via www.hubrecht.eu/marie-curie-....

For the first time, scientists watched the flu virus live as it infected human airway cells. The group from @marvintanenbaum.bsky.social developed a new imaging technique, VISUN, and observed a large variation in infection success. See www.hubrecht.eu/flu-virus/. Video by @janinschoko.bsky.social

Can the genome's guardian protect against chromosome abnormalities? Joana Marques successfully defended her PhD thesis. She found that p53 is not a universal safeguard against aneuploidy, but its role is context-dependent.

Today, Joana Marques successfully defended her PhD thesis!🎓 At @kopslab.bsky.social, she studied whether p53, a key player in the security system of our cells, can protect against aneuploidy in cancer🧬Congratulations Joana! Read more via our website 👉 www.hubrecht.eu/phd-marques/

Excited to see so many registrations for the Hubrecht Symposium 2026! We’re close to full capacity, but there are still a few spots left.

Alongside an excellent speaker line-up, we’re welcoming abstract submissions for selected talks and posters until February 15.

www.hubrecht.eu/hubrecht-sym...

How do cells suppress naturally occurring DNA damage to prevent mutations? A new study led by the Garaycoechea group identified previously unknown forms of guanine damage that accumulate in the liver and kidney and the key pathways that limit mutations. Read more: www.hubrecht.eu/dna-damage.

New research in nature.com led by by Dhanushika Ratnayake from the group of marvintanenbaum.bsky.social shows that only a subset of RSV particles carry a “starter kit” essential for building a viral factory required for successful RSV infection.

See www.hubrecht.eu/rsv-starter-...

Image with overview of Hubrecht Symposium 2026 information, including title, speakers, etc.

There are still spots available for our Hubrecht Symposium 2026, taking place on Thursday March 26!

📝 Abstract submission deadline: February 1st.
🎟️ Registration deadline: February 15th.

Learn more and register 👇
www.hubrecht.eu/hubrecht-sym...

Catherine Robin has received an LSBR grant to advance a promising approach to blood stem cell generation. This project aims to establish gastruloids as an animal-free model to study blood stem cell development and enable scalable production of these cells. See www.hubrecht.eu/lsbr-grant-r...

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🧬 Very excited to share our work on dissecting imputation strategies for single-cell histone modification data! academic.oup.com/nargab/artic...

A huge thank you to @robinhweide.bsky.social, @jopkind.bsky.social and Jeroen de Ridder for their collaboration in this project!

Portrait image of Francesca Mattiroli

Group leader @fmattiroli.bsky.social receives a KWF grant! Together with @aniekj.bsky.social and @nitikataneja.bsky.social, she will study the link between defects in heterochromatin – a specific form of DNA organization – and cancer development. Read more here 👉 www.hubrecht.eu/kwf-grant-mattiroli

Register now for the second Hubrecht Symposium, themed Molecular Machines in Development in Utrecht on March 26, 2026.

Visit hubrecht.eu/hubrecht-symposium-2026/ for registration and abstract submission.

Abstract submission deadline: February 1, 2026.

Collaboration between signals during embryonic development Jonas Mars successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled 'Evolutionarily conserved crosstalk in developmental biology'.

Today, Jonas Mars successfully defended his PhD thesis! 🎓 He investigated whether the crosstalk between specific signaling pathways during development has been evolutionarily conserved, by comparing these pathways in worms and mice. Congratulations Jonas! Read more here 👉 www.hubrecht.eu/phd-mars

New immune role discovered for M cells in the gut. New work in @nature.com by the group of hansclevers.bsky.social shows that human M cells can present antigens to T cells, including gluten antigens. This may link them to celiac disease. Read more: www.hubrecht.eu/immune-role-...

Microscopy image of mouse embryo tail

Congratulations Ina Sonnen on receiving a Consolidator Grant from @erc.europa.eu! It will allow her to strengthen her research group and take on questions such as: how do cells communicate robustly and precisely with each other during development, despite noise? Read more👉 www.hubrecht.eu/erc-sonnen

PhD defense Sonja Ruttchen Wetering Sonja Ruttchen Weterings successfully defended her PhD thesis. She studied how signal timing influences cell production in the intestine.

Today, Sonja Ruttchen Weterings successfully defended her PhD thesis! She investigated how the timing of molecular signals influences cell renewal in the small intestine. Congratulations Sonja! 🎓 www.hubrecht.eu/phd-ruttchen-weterings

PhD defense Anna-Karina Felder Anna-Karina Felder successfully defended her PhD thesis. She studied the role of the distance between enhancers and their target genes.

🧬 What happens if you bring enhancers closer to their target genes? Today, @akfelder.bsky.social defended her thesis in which she developed a method to answer that question. Activating silent genes in this way could be a new approach to gene therapy. Congratulations Anna!🎓 www.hubrecht.eu/phd-felder

Animal-free perspectives for organoid culture - PhD Defense Joost Wijnakker Joost Wijnakker successfully defended his PhD thesis "Exploring Integrin Function to Enable Defined, Animal-Free Organoid Culture".

Joost Wijnakker from the @hansclevers.bsky.social group defended his PhD today. He found that the bacterial protein Invasin can support organoid growth without animal-derived Matrigel. A key step toward fully animal-free, defined organoid culture. Congrats! See www.hubrecht.eu/phd-joost-wijnakker/

Find the full article (open access) at www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New publication in @natbiotech.nature.com! Wim de Lau and colleagues from @hansclevers.bsky.social group describe an integrin-activating antibody that enhances organoid growth also in, medical-grade, collagen. An important step toward more affordable and translational organoid culture systems.

The mystery deepens: how did all complex life on Earth originate? In this intriguing VPRO Tegenlicht episode (in Dutch), PhD student Max Raas from the @kopslab.bsky.social talks about his collaboration with Berend Snel. They study the evolution of cell division machinery in single-celled organisms.

Can blood vessel organoids help us generate transplantable blood stem cells in the lab? Fabien Boudia can now explore this question thanks to a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship. Read more about his project via www.hubrecht.eu/marie-curie-...

Researchers at Hubrecht Institute and Radboud University developed an animal-free gel in which organoids can grow and expand long-term. The PIC-invasin gel allows for more consistent, ethical and affordable organoid research. @hansclevers.bsky.social @pnas.org 
🔗 https://f.mtr.cool/cekttmhhtn

What is this? It is cohesin, a molecular machine inside our cells, looping the DNA. Today, researchers at the Hubrecht Institute and NKI published a new molecular tool that allows them to study the effects of this process in living cells: www.nature.com/articles/s41....
🎥 Cees Dekker Lab, TU Delft.

PhD defense Fjodor Yousef Yengej Fjodor Yousef Yengej successfully defended his thesis ‘Organoids: Translation to clinical nephrology’ on October 14th.

Can organoids help us better understand and treat kidney disease? Fjodor Yousef Yengej set out to answer this question during his PhD. Today, he was awarded the cum laude distinction after successfully defending his thesis. 🎓 Congratulations Fjodor! Read more 👉 www.hubrecht.eu/phd-yousef-y...

Save the date! The second Hubrecht Symposium will take place on March 26, 2026. This year’s theme is “Molecular Machines in Development”, with Petra Hajkova, Andrea Pauli and @danielgerlich.bsky.social as keynote speakers. Registration opens soon, stay tuned via hubrecht.eu/hubrecht-symposium/. ‬

Congratulations to @hansclevers.bsky.social for receiving the Spanish Abarca Prize. "By discovering the Lgr5 marker and introducing gut organoid culture, he laid the foundation for a technology that today redefines biomedical research and clinical care." www.abarcaprize.com

We spoke to Miguel Leung, who today celebrates his first year as a group leader at the Hubrecht Institute. His group uses structural cell biology to study reproduction and microbial diversity at atomic resolution. Read the full interview here: www.hubrecht.eu/one-year-in-...

Max Madern receives CS&D Best Publication Award Max Madern received this year’s CS&D Best Publication Award for his research on ribosomes and their ability to help each other in difficult situations.

Visit our website for the full news item: www.hubrecht.eu/max-madern-r...