Sander van der Laan

I am an assistant professor at the Central Diagnostics Laboratory which is part of the Circulatory Health Program at the University Medical Center Utrecht and University of Utrecht. My research interest is focused on the genetic and epigenetic causes of carotid and coronary atherosclerosis and its effects on plaque morphology underlying ischemic stroke (IS) and coronary artery disease (CAD), and their intermediate traits such as carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) and arterial calcification. Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of genetic loci robustly associated to these diseases and traits. With my work I ultimately aim to move from GWAS loci to novel therapeutic targets and (surrogate) biomarkers for cardiovascular diseases through extensive in silico, and in vitro modeling.

As a means to this end, I am currently working on integrating Bayesian fine-mapping methodology, co-localization, causal inference through Mendelian Randomization, expression and methylation quantitative trait loci analyses, GWAS, single-cell RNA sequencing, and plaque characterization based on high-throughput imaging of histological slides and machine learning algorithms. This has resulted in the identification of 28 loci with a substrate in plaques that harbor genes potentially causal to atherosclerosis and amenable to therapy. We are currently pursuing several targets in vitro.

My vision is that this holistic approach will identify the truly viable targets to feed the drug developmental pipeline to combat the cardiovascular disease epidemic. This approach is entirely human-centered and does not involved new in vivo experiments.

I support and promote principles of Open Science by letting values of quality and integrity, science for the benefit of all, fairness, equity, diversity and inclusiveness guide my work. I value transparency, reproducibility, and critique, accountability, responsibility, and collaboration. The Future of Science is Open, as is my Science.

I actively contributed to the International Stroke Genetics Consortium. In addition, I made some contributions to international consortia, including GENIUS-CHD, GIANT, GLGC, GoDMC, and various other international consortia.

I am a Review Editor for Frontiers in Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Prevention and Frontiers in Genetics and Omics of Stroke, and Associated Editor for Frontiers in Human and Medical Genomics and Frontiers in Cardiovascular Epidemiology.

Together with Menno de Winther and Jeffrey Kroon I re-activated the Dutch Atherosclerosis Society and am currently a member of the DAS board.

I hold a degree in Biology (BSc) and Medical Biology (MSc) from the Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands. I obtained my PhD in 2016 entitled "The genetics of carotid atherosclerosis - Associations with clinical outcome and histological plaque characteristics" under supervision of professor Gerard Pasterkamp, professor Paul I.W. de Bakker, and doctor Jessica van Setten. The thesis is publicly available here and it is the first thesis accompanied by a soundtrack available on Spotify.

My work is covered through various (inter)national collaborative grant programs: EU H2020 TO_AITION (grant number: 848146), EU HORIZON NextGen (grant number: 101136962), EU HORIZON MIRACLE (grant number: 101115381), and Health~Holland PPP Allowance ‘Getting the Perfect Image’.

I am thankful for the support of the Leducq Fondation ‘PlaqOmics’ and ‘AtheroGen’, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative ‘MetaPlaq’. The research for this contribution was made possible by the AI for Health working group of the EWUU alliance (https://aiforhealth.ewuu.nl/). The collaborative project ‘Getting the Perfect Image’ was co-financed through use of PPP Allowance awarded by Health~Holland, Top Sector Life Sciences & Health, to stimulate public-private partnerships.

I have received Roche funding for unrelated work.