Dutch icons

The Dutch Parliament declared two Life Sciences & Health projects as National Icons. The National Icons are groundbreaking projects that contribute positively to societal challenges the world faces.

Hans Clevers’ groundbreaking stem cell research

Hans Clevers and his research group of the Hubrecht Institute have developed a method to grow small amounts of stem cells from tissue of healthy people or patients into endless numbers of cells. Together with the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and University Medical Centre Utrecht, Clevers has set up a non-profit organization, Hubrecht Organoid Technology (The HUB), to further develop and commercialize the method.

More information: hub4organoids.eu/

Gijsbert van de Wijdevens’ Bioneedle

Every day, more than 18.000 children die because they are not protected by vaccines for deadly diseases. Bioneedle addresses this global health problem and is the first vaccination system that enables needle free vaccination and uses freeze dried vaccines. With this technology needle-related incidents are eliminated and distribution is much easier, because there is no need for a cooling system. This technology can speed up the vaccination process tremendously, especially in developing countries. 

More information: www.bioneedle.com/