Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht, Netherlands
Universiteitssingel 50
6229 ER Maastricht

The Netherlands

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Project Leader

Professor Dr. Mat Daemen Phone: +31 43 3874611  Fax: +31 43 3876613  Contact

Project Staff

Dr. Sylvia Heeneman Senior Scientist  Phone: +31 43 3876629  Fax: +31 43 3876613  Contact

Institute Presentation

The Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM) was founded in 1988 and provides a combined framework for the cardiovascular research performed at Maastricht University and University Hospital Maastricht (azM). CARIM has set priorities for the main lines of research, based on the available expertise and the relevance for health care. Three main areas of research can be distinguished within the institute:

1. research focusing on thrombosis and hemostasis: 4 programs (humoral, cellular, vascular and clinical aspects)
2. research on the functioning of the normal and failing heart, and on the possibilities for detecting and treating high risk cardiac patients: 5 programs (ischemic damage and adaptation, cardiac metabolic disorders, cardiac mechanical dysfunction, cardiac arrhythmias and cardiac genomics)
3. research focusing on vascular biology of both large and small vessels: 5 programs (Vascular development, vascular remodelling, predisposition to vascular disease, mechanism of vascular occlusion and vascular medicine

All three themes of research involve fundamental as well as clinical studies. The institute has expertise in a wide range of areas, ranging from molecular biology to population-based studies. Its goal is to focus on clinically important questions, integrating knowledge from molecule to patient. Activities within the three main areas of research are not isolated entities, since close cooperation exists both between and within the main research areas.

The group of Prof Daemen is embedded in line III (vascular biology) in the subprogram 'mechanisms of vascular occlusion'. The primary research interest of the department of pathology in the field of cardiovascular disease is the unstable atherosclerosis plaque.  With the use of gene expression analysis, mechanisms of the transition from a stable to an unstable plaque are investigated.  Unstable plaques are responsible for various clinical manifestations of atherosclerosis such as myocardial infarction, stroke and peripheral ischemia.  Important sources of atherosclerotic plaque material are humans and this material is collected and stored in the Maastricht Pathology Tissue Collection (MPTC) database.  Candidate genes fund in gene expression studies are validated in vitro systems and in mouse models of atherosclerosis.  The department of pathology is now quite specialised in the analysis of atherosclerosis in mouse models.  Among the targets found and validated are CD40L and TGFB.
Besides genomics-based studies, other techniques and methods are employed to investigate differences between plaque phenotypes.  For example, techniques such as 2D electrophoresis are used to determine differences at the protein level.
Molecular imaging of atherosclerosis in humans and mice is also an important part of research at the department of pathology.  With molecular imaging, the molecular differences between plaque phenotypes are exploited in order to identify and show unstable plaques.