Modern research is often multi-faceted and requires the combination of specialists from various fields. Over the course of the years, we have been keeping contact with many of our collaborators, who we greatly value. In many cases these collaborations have resulted in longlasting friendships. Below a list of current and past collaborators, in chronological order of appearance.
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Bruno Villoutreix, PhD
INSERM U648
Université Paris Diderot – Paris7
With Dr. Bruno Villoutreix we have established a longterm collaboration and friendship. He has truely been, and still is, an inspiration to our laboratory. He has extensive experience in various aspects of structural bioinformatics, in particular those of blood coagulation proteins. Although at present he has broadened his focus to other research fields, we continue to collaborate in particular with respect to virtual ligand screening techniques. Other members of his team, Maria Miteva and Olivier Sperandio, are also involved in these collaborative efforts. Students from our laboratories are exchanged to promote their education.
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Björn Dahlbäck, MD, PhD
Professor of Blood Coagulation Research
Department of Laboratory Medicine, division of Clinical Chemistry
Lund University
University Hospital Malmö
Malmö, Sweden
With Prof. Björn Dahlbäck is a collaborator and friend, with whom we share an interest in the structure function studies of coagulation factor V and its regulation by the protein C system. Prof. Dahlbäck is an authority with respect to factor V and is the discoverer of APC resistance. Besides his interest in coagulation and the complement system he has widened his scientific horizon ever since he discovered apolipoprotein M, a protein important to the lipoprotein physiology and the etiology of atherosclerotic disease.
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Svetla Stoilova-McPhie, PhD
Division of Structural Biology, OPIC
Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics
University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive
Oxford OX3 7BN, UK
With Dr. Stoylova we have had a collaboration since 1999, in a structural genomics study in which we aim at gaining a better and more detailed insight into the 3D structure of coagulation factor V and its ligands. Dr. Stoylova is an expert in the EM based methods for solving (macromolecular) structures.
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Cathy Hayward, MD, PhD
Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine/Medicine
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario Canada
With Dr. Hayward we have collaborated in the research of multimerin, a platelet protein discovered by Dr. Hayward and which has been shown to be a binding partner of coagulation factor V.
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Jan Voorberg, PhD
Department of Plasma Proteins
Sanquin Research
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
With Prof. Voorberg we share an ongoing interest in studies in the field of coagulation factor VIII research. Occasional collaborations, a sharing of materials and methods have helped our work a lot. We have been involved in a EU-funded project “PROFILE” where we studied ADAMTS13 in the context of the auto-immune disorder acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). Currently we are continuing our work on ADAMTS13 through the joint supervision of a PhD student, as subsidised by the Netherlands Thrombosis Foundation.
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Gert Vriend, PhD
Centre for Molecular and Biomolecular Informatics
Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Prof. Vriend has since 2003 been a strong supporter of our work in the more applied structural bioinformatics. On many occasions we have received his help and guidance and it is always a great pleasure to work with him and his team members. He has co-supervised Barbara Zarzycka, during her successful time as a PhD student in Maastricht. His original and critical mind, tremendous knowledge of proteins and their structure, his teaching skills and straightforward mode of communication make that every meeting is an adventure and a pleasure. He is without doubt one of the great minds in protein structure bioinformatics in our time. Currently Gert is enjoying his retirement in beautiful Philipines, but every now and then enjoys joining our discussions on selected topics.
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Paul E. Bock, PhD †
Department of Pathology
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America
Prof. Bock has visited the Maastricht laboratory as a visiting professor during a sabbatical leave and has boosted the interest we have in using fluorescence techniques for quantitative measurements in the structure-function studies of coagulation factors as well as snake venoms. With respect to these common research interests we have started collaborations that involve protein fluorescence measurements as well as the design of small-molecule streptokinase inhibitors.
Sadly, Paul passed away on October 11th 2019 after several years of poor health. With him we lost a real great colleague and friend, and the research society lost a remarkable, original, creative and outspoken researcher of whom there are far too few.
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Mingdong Huang, PhD
State Key Lab of Structural Chemistry
Fujian, People’s Republic of China
Prof. Huang, during his time in the group of the doctors Furie at Harvard Medical School in Boston, succeeded in obtaining a crystal structure of one of the small-molecule inhibitors of FVIII, that were discovered by us. We continue to share an interest in the C-domains of FVIII.
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Chris Reutelingsperger, PhD
Department of Biochemistry
Maastricht University
Prof. Reutelingsperger, who heads a research group within the Biochemistry department is the discoverer of Annexin V, the protein that can bind specifically to phospolipid membranes that contain the net negatively phosphatidylserine. We are have first joined forces in a structure function study aimed at indentifation of key residues in the Annexin V molecule that are essential for its biological functions. Our unit supplies the bioinformatics input that forms the basis of these ongoing studies. Vice versa, prof. Reutelingsperger has provided instrumental input in our studies on the properties of non-anticoagulant heparin in cell activation and in inflammation. He has been a co-supervisor of the PhD student Karin Wildhagen and we continue to collaborate extensively in the field of inflammation. In this respect Prof. Reutelingsperger, with proven experience in translational research and business, is likewise involved in the spin-off company Matisse Pharmaceuticals, which was created to further develop the non-anticoagulant heparins for treatment of inflammatory disease.
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Esther Lutgens, MD, PhD
Esther Lutgens, MD, PhD
Prof. of Medicine, Mayo Clinic
Dept of Cardiovascular Medicine & Immunology
Rochester, MN 55902 USA
Since 2009 we have been collaborating with Prof. Lutgens, who at the time was working in Maastricht. We have shared the supervision of PhD students Karin Wildhagen, Barbara Zarzycka and Hessel Poelman, all of whom are/were very successful students. Prof Lutgens focuses on the molecular processes that govern atherosclerosis and in particular the function of an adapter protein TRAF6, involved in plaque formation, and in inflammation in general. Working with Prof. Lutgens is a privilage and a joy, given her enormous understanding of molecular medicine and her will to try all kinds of ideas. She has supported us in many an in vivo experiment. Our collaborative efforts in the discovery and optimization of small-molecule TRAF6 inhibitors has so far been extremely fruitful. We have expanded to other proteins in the CD40 signalling pathways. From the end of 2021 Esther will leave the Netherlands and move to the USA with her family. We hope and expect to continue our collaborative work though.
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Cees van ’t Veer, PhD
Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine
Academic Medical Centre
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Dr. van ’t Veer is a colleague and friend since many years. Optimist by nature, combined with great skills and knowledge. We try to support Dr van ’t Veers research on IRAK-M by provinding the structural context by which his functional studies can most optimally be guided and explained. Furthermore, frequent discussions on inflammation and sepsis in particular are much appreciated and we recently started a collaboration is this respect as well.
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Jean-Luc Pellequer, PhD
Structural Biology Institute
Université Grenoble Alpes – CNRS – CEA
Dr. Pellequer shares our interest in the coagulation cofactors and their 3D structures. He recently moved to Grenoble, where we will continue our collaborative studies and he has excellent opportunities to perform Atomic Force Microscopy, with which he can do magic.
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Pablo Garcia de Frutos, PhD
Instituto de Investigaciones Biomedicas de Barcelona (IIBB)
Spanish National Research Council
Barcelona, Spain
Dr. Garcia de Frutos is a colleague and dear friend. Our mutual interests have moved from blood coagulation research to more inflammatory disease and we continue to work in this area of exploration. Dr. Garcia de Frutos was the first to witness the in vivo therapeutic properties of non-anticoagulant heparin in systemic inflammatory disease, the study of which would not have been possible without his pioneering help. From 2020 on, we have together moved into the direction of COVID-19 disease, as it turned out that our research interests were very relevant to the pathogenesis of COVID-19 disease.
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Oliver Söhnlein, MD, PhD
Westfälische Wilhelms Universität Münster
Zentrum für Molekularbiologie der Entzündung (ZMBE)
Münster, Germany
Prof Söhnlein is a dear colleague with whom we have performed several studies, involving his expert knowledge of vascular immunotherapy. He has excellent skills in in vivo experimentation and in vivo imaging in particular. besides this he is very efficient and it is always a pleasure to work with him. Where possible we provide prof. Söhnlein structural input in his work, focusing on chemokines, chemokine receptors and the roles of extracellular histones, such as to provide a rational context in which experimentation becomes more efficient.
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Tom van der Poll, MD. PhD
Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine
Academic Medical Centre
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Prof. van der Poll is one of the world-experts on inflammation and sepsis. It is in this context that we were suported by him in our studies of the presence of extracellular histones in sepsis patients. We continue to she a common interest and have regular discussions of our work.
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Tassos Economou, PhD
REGA Institute
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Leuven, Belgium
The group of Prof. Economou had approached us to aid in the discovery of small molecules with antibiotic properties. The work has taken several years, but resulted in the publication of a manuscript in 2015 where we present the data on novel inhibitors of SecA, a bacterial ATPase.
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Robert Frithiof, MD, PhD
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology (FYFA), C3
Kkarolinska Institute
Stockholm, Sweden
Dr. Frithiof is an expert in in vivo experimentation and we have been collaborating in this area since 2013. Ongoing studies include the characterisation of non-anticoagulant heparin and the study of sepsis. From 2020 on, we have together moved into the direction of COVID-19 disease, as it turned out that our research interests were very relevant to the pathogenesis of COVID-19 disease.
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Christian Weber, MD, PhD
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
Institut für Prophylaxe und Epidemiologie der Kreislaufkrankheiten (IPEK)
München, Germany
Prof. Weber, who also is affiliated to the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht is an expert in the field of the molecular processes that explain the process of atherosclerosis. We recently were asked to provide a structural bioinformatics input in the studies of him and his team, focused at interactions between chemokines and their receptors.
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No individual can win a game by himself – Pele