Our lab is at the Central Diagnostic Laboratory (UMC Utrecht) where my group integrates genetics, AI-driven digital pathology, and single-cell/spatial transcriptomics to understand atherosclerosis and its clinical sequelae. Our focus is on linking inherited variation to plaque biology and morphology to improve biomarker discovery and therapeutic targeting in cardiovascular disease.

On the imaging front, we lead computerized phenotyping of atherosclerotic plaques from whole-slide images (WSI), including the ExpressScan project and intraplaque hemorrhage quantification, building atlases and algorithms that map histological features to molecular signals and outcomes.

In functional genomics, our team intersects GWAS findings with single-cell and spatial readouts to pinpoint disease-relevant cell states and candidate effector genes within plaques. Representative work identifies crucial plaque cell populations via single-cell transcriptomics integrated with GWAS, advancing variant-to-function inference (see here).

In cardiovascular genetics, we have contributed to multi-ancestry studies that reveal targets and druggable pathways, for example, in coronary artery calcification and cIMT , and to broader efforts connecting susceptibility loci to plaque traits and stroke risk These studies exemplify “team science” translating polygenic signals into mechanisms and potential interventions.

Across these strands, our lab’s mission, articulated on our group site, is to move from GWAS loci to therapeutic hypotheses and surrogate biomarkers through in silico and in vitro modeling, underpinned by open-science practices.