Full Professor
Strategic program(s):
Biography
Sabine Fuchs is professor Metabolic Diseases and Innovative Therapies. She combines her clinical work as pediatrician in Metabolic Diseases with leading a research group in the Regenerative Medical Center Utrecht in the Hubrecht Institute.
To address the enormous unmet need in care for patients with metabolic diseases, she employs innovative strategies like patient-derived liver organoids and precise gene editing to develop treatments for these patients. She continuously strives to improve personalized disease modelling (Ardisasmita ea. Commun Biol 2022) and developed an improved liver organoid model (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.29.620824v1), resulting in a spin-off company HeLLO R&D (winner of the NWO-Take-off grant 2024, the proefdiervrij Venture Challenge 2024, the UREKA challenge 2024, the Biotech Booster Grant 2024, and the Utrecht Holding Voucher 2024).
Having built a large metabolic biobank containing >300 patient-derived organoid lines, her team was the first to demonstrate that prime editing can restore disease phenotypes both genetically and functionally in patient-derived intestinal and liver organoids without causing unwanted genetic effects (Schene ea. Nat Commun 2020). To quickly adapt the prime-editing tools to the many different patient mutations, her team developed an innovative fluorescent reporter (Schene ea. Nat Commun 2022). This infrastructure and expertise allowed her to set up a gene-correction program targeting the liver using lipid nanoparticle-mediated mRNA delivery. With evolving delivery technologies (including virus-like particles), she now also targets other organs. For this work, she was awarded prestigious grants (ERC Proof of Concept, ERC Starting, ZonMW VICI, ZonMW Clinical Fellows, and ZonMW AGICO grants) and prizes (KNAW-Ammodo Science Award for Groundbreaking Research, Elisabeth von Freyburg penning).
She is dedicated to translational research and strives to inspire translational scientists by participating in the EUREKA certificate program, the Utrecht Translational Medicine Summer School and TULIPS (Training Upcoming Leaders In Pediatric Science). To further stimulate “doing the right research right”, she is member of the UMCU Open Science Team and UMCU representative in the UU Open Science Platform.
2024 200.000 € Biotech Booster: HeLLO
2024 150.000 € ERC Proof of Concept grant: IMPACT
2024 1.500.000 € ZonMW VICI: in vivo gene correction: beyond deLIVERy
2024 15.000 € Tjallingh Roorda Stichting: Genetic correction therapies for children with
mitochondrial disease (PhDs EI&PS; supervision Fuchs)
2024 354.000 € Piet Poortman fund: Gene correction therapies targeting the brain
2024 62.500 € Patient funding: mRNA therapies for metabolic diseases
2024 370.000 € Hersenstichting: gene correction for Northsea Disease (co-application with de Koning)
2024 100.000 € Takeda COCKPI grant: LNP-mediated correction of PFIC-causing mutations in patient-derived liver models
2023 15.000 € Tjallingh Roorda Stichting: Amino acid treatment for patients with mitochondrial ARS deficiencies (fellow EH, guided by Fuchs)
2023 154.000 € Metakids / UMD: Unlocking the mitochondrial genome (gene correction for MELAS)
2022 8.111.335 € NWA-ORC: Nanospresso-NL: Local preparation of high-quality, personalized nucleic acid nanomedicines (Co-applicant; main applicant: Ray Schiffelers)
2022 1.200.000 € KNAW Ammodo Science Award for Ground Breaking Research: PI S. Fuchs, Team: H. Clevers, E. Nieuwenhuis, R. van Boxtel, A. Bredenoord
2022 15.000 € Tjallingh Roorda Stichting: Mitochondrial gene correction for mitochondrial disease (postdoc MK, guided by S. Fuchs)
2021 1.500.000 € ERC Starting Grant: Prime editing to Repair Inborn Metabolic Errors
2021 15.000 € Child Health Boost grant: Broadening the scope of prime editors for efficient correction of untreatable cystic fibrosis mutations (PhD-student IS/S. Fuchs)
2020 15.000 € Tjallingh Roorda Stichting: Mitochondrial transplantation as a novel therapy for patients with mitochondrial disease (PhD-student AO, supervised by S. Fuchs)
2020 15.000 € Metakids / UMD: Energising patients with inherited metabolic diseases (Co-applicant; main applicant: M. Langeveld, Amsterdam UMC)
2020 15.000 € Metakids / UMD: Improving hepatic engraftment by generating adult hepatocyte organoid cultures (S. Fuchs with PhD student IJ)
2019 250.000 € Metakids / UMD: New ways, better outcomes: n-of-1 for all (Co-applicant; main applicant: prof. v Karnebeek, Nijmegen MC & Amsterdam UMC)
2019 250.000 € Metakids / UMD: The promise of messenger RNA for IEMs: advancing tissue targeting (application with W. Pijnappel Erasmus MC / B. Smeets & E. Rubio MUMC)
2019 250.000 € Elisabeth von Freyburg Stichting: Better Care for the Rare – testing new treatments in mini-organs with genetic diseases (main applicant, with J. Beekman, RMCU)
2019 259.500 € Metakids / PNOzorg: Every child should be able to sport, also children with a disease in fatty acid oxydation
2017 749.328 € Open Technology program: Biofabrication of liver constructs for hepatotoxicity testing and personalized medicine approaches (Co-applicant, Main applicant: Spee)
2016 147.500 € ERC proof of concept grant: Toxanoid: pharmacological safety testing in human adult stem cell-derived organoids (Co-applicant, Main applicant: H. Gehart)
2016 388.829 € Metakids Research Funding / Vriendenloterij: Towards a new in vitro model for metabolic diseases
2016 5.000 € Elisabeth von Freyburg penning, prize for young promising internationally recognized researcher
2015 152.934 € MLDS foundation: Liver organoids as a unique patient derived in vitro model to study ATP8B1 deficiency and test novel therapeutic strategies
2015 10.000 € Stofwisselkracht: Liver stem cells for treatment of metabolic diseases
2015 50.000 € Metakids Research Funding: Towards a new in vitro model for inborn errors of metabolism
2015 100.000 € ZonMW Ethiek en Gezondheid: The ethics of first in human organoid transplantation (Co-applicant, Main applicant: Bredenoord)
2014 160.000 € ZonMW Klinische Fellows: Stem cell based strategies for patients with liver disease
2013 75.000 € Metakids Research Fund: Liver stem cell transplantation – new treatment option for metabolic disease?
2011 2.000.000 € ZonMW TAS: Regenerating Intestinal Tissue with Stem cells (RITS); since 2014 redirected towards liver; application with H. Clevers & E. Nieuwenhuis)
2004 63.530 € NWO (ZONMW)-AGIKO stipendium (920-03-345): the role of D-serine in perinatal asphyxia; a new candidate for pharmacologic intervention?
