Daniël A. Pijnappels is professor of cellular electrophysiology, head of the Laboratory of Experimental Cardiology (Leiden University Medical Center) and focusing on interdisciplinary translational cardiology.

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Daniël A. Pijnappels is professor of cellular electrophysiology, head of the Laboratory of Experimental Cardiology (Leiden University Medical Center) and focusing on interdisciplinary translational cardiology.

Academic career

He received his PhD with honors from Leiden University in 2009, and established the Laboratory of Experimental Cardiology in 2011 to develop an integrative research approach covering various aspects of biology, physics, engineering and medicine. This approach was inspired by the interdisciplinary nature of the heart itself. He was appointed full professor in 2022. With this approach, his group aims for a sustainable and comprehensive improvement in the prospects of human cardiac health by addressing the (unanswered) needs in understanding and therapy through the creation of new biology (i.e. synthetic biomedicine) and its integration with emerging technologies. One main aim is to develop therapies for cardiac diseases, allowing the heart itself to detect and neutralize physiological disturbances, which in case of cardiac arrhythmias involves the creation of a Biologically-Integrated Cardiac Defibrillator (or Bio-ICD).

To address these aims, the lab houses an international team (>15 different nationalities since 2011) consisting of biologists, physicians, engineers and physicists. As a result, the research projects have both a strong interdisciplinary and translational focus by combining (human) computer modeling with in vitro/vivo modeling, genetic engineering (e.g. optogenetics and immortogenetics) and microelectronic engineering. Also, different national and international collaborations (including a long-term and intensive collaboration with the Delft University of Technology) have been established to not only further advance the research, but also the create an optimal environment for next generations of professionals to train and flourish.

He has received funding from, among others, the European Research Council (ERC 2015 StG, 2021 CoG), The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw 2010 Veni, 2013 Vidi), the Dutch Heart Foundation, and Ammodo. In addition, he and his team have received multiple awards (>50) for their work, including the Outstanding Achievement Award from the from the Council for Basic Cardiovascular Science (European Society of Cardiology), Pearl Award (Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development), and multiple Young Investigator Awards at all major cardiology and electrophysiology conferences.

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