June was a particularly active month for the ABCardionostics consortium, with several team members presenting their work at national and international scientific meetings. These events provided valuable opportunities to share project progress with the cardiovascular research community.
Among these highlights, Aniek Plug (PhD, Maastricht University Medical Center+) represented ABCardionostics at the 5th Dutch Atherosclerosis Society (DAS) Congress in Utrecht, where she delivered a selected oral presentation. And returned with the Best Presentation Prize!
Aniek’s presentation showcased research carried out within Work Package 1, which aims to characterise and model human plaque monocyte and macrophage subsets. By identifying both harmful (“culprit”) and protective immune cell populations in atherosclerotic plaques, WP1 lays the foundation for the development of innovative antibody-based diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
During her talk, Aniek first introduced the ABCardionostics project, its consortium and its objectives before presenting three complementary in vitro macrophage models currently under development at MUMC and CRMSB: Lp(a)-induced inflammatory lipid-associated macrophages, hypoxia-induced inflammatory macrophages and intraplaque haemorrhage-associated macrophages.
Selected from 53 submitted abstracts representing 11 research institutes, Aniek’s presentation was awarded the Best Presentation Prize, recognising both the quality of the research and the clarity of its presentation. Congratulations to Aniek on this well-deserved recognition, and to all the collaborators involved in this work!
