Inspiration from nature

Text: Nienke Beintema, Photo: Kees van de Veen

“The UMCG and the University of Groningen have a long history of working together on health technology,” says Marleen Kamperman. “This has resulted in a lot of great research, but we felt that opportunities were being missed. The work rarely led to new products or treatments. We saw many options for improvement there. We are the only place in the Netherlands that offers technical training programmes and has a university hospital. This presents us with unique opportunities for collaboration.” The Health Technology Research and Innovation Cluster (HTRIC) was established in 2022 for this very purpose (see text box): to promote interdisciplinary research and translate the results into practical applications. Kamperman, professor of polymer chemistry at the University of Groningen, is the cluster’s scientific director.

Have you had any successes in the past few years?
“Some ambitions have materialised, yes, but others haven’t. Initially, we had made grand plans, but actually implementing them turned out to be quite a challenge: to work on fundamental questions, to do applied research, and to actually achieve innovation. Of course, you have to be patient with these kinds of things. But I’m a doer – I want to see results. That is why we are so very happy with the contribution from the Ubbo Emmius Foundation. This allows us to really take things forward.”

Can you tell us something about the research at HTRIC? 

“We have four lines of research. The first is focused on materials. That is my own field of expertise. We are looking for new ‘smart’ materials that you can use in the human body, for example as a stent. The materials must be able to change properties after being inserted into the body, for example by starting out soft and then becoming very strong and tough. A soft material can be inserted through a small opening in the body, making the procedure less invasive. We draw inspiration from nature for this. Take a tick, for example. A tick makes a small tube through which it sucks blood. We are looking to see if we can imitate that tube, but with a synthetic material, which you could use in our body. It is really fun to start out from a fundamental question, and then, once you understand how something works, to start thinking about smart applications.”

And the second line of research? 

“This line focuses on diagnostics. Together with clinicians, we are working on ways to detect more quickly whether someone has sepsis, or blood poisoning. A very fundamental question is: which biomarker is useful? Which molecule, or combination of molecules, is a good indicator of sepsis? At the moment, the diagnostics process often takes too much time, and doctors tend to use their gut feeling. It would be great if you could measure sepsis in the blood at an early stage. We now have the opportunity to work on this question from various angles.”

What are lines three and four about?

“The third is about using imaging technologies to combat infections. Imaging can provide a better insight into the exact location of an infection, and also into treatment options. The UMCG already has a great deal of expertise in this area. And finally, we are working on so-called ‘targeted therapies’: medicines that are delivered to exactly the right place in the body, and do their work only there. We do this together with physicists. For example, Ben Feringa (the Nobel Prize winner from Groningen, who received a large UEF grant in 2023, ed.) and colleagues are already making molecules that can be altered with a beam of light. They have been working on this principle for a long time, and are now reaching a point where they can start looking at clinical applications.”

It all sounds very interdisciplinary.

“That’s right. The material scientists at the Zernike Institute, for example, are working on the interface between physics and chemistry. Engineers and computer scientists are involved in the work on imaging and diagnostic techniques. I myself work at the interface of chemistry and biology. And then there’s the link with clinicians and fundamental physicists. That’s the great thing about Groningen: we have all of these disciplines here, in one place.”

What are the challenges in your own research field?

“The questions often revolve around proteins, and specifically around their synthesis. You can find super interesting examples in nature. Take spider silk: one of the most fascinating materials, if you ask me. Spider silk has many very interesting properties. It is light, elastic and incredibly strong at the same time, and the threads are covered in a fantastic glue, which sticks to insects but not to the spider itself. The silk starts out in the spider’s body as a protein solution: proteins dissolved in water. Then the spider spins these into threads in a very controlled way, and the proteins are no longer water-soluble. How does the spider do that? This concept has all kinds of biomedical potential, as applications in the human body. Wound glue, or suture thread, or material to seal off unhealthy bits of lung tissue...”

But you can't just use any substance in the clinic. 

"That's right. The tricky thing with biomedical research is that you have to test your substance very extensively, according to fixed protocols – especially if you start with a molecule that is new to the clinic. That makes this research very expensive, and really something of the long haul."

Does HTRIC also deal with these regulatory issues? 

“Yes. HTRIC was specifically set up to make connections, to promote collaboration, to come up with new things – but also to help researchers, for instance, with European guidelines for new medical devices, with ethics committees, and with issues such as intellectual property, patents, investors, marketing... We are not going to do all of this ourselves, but we’ll will work on this through existing structures such as the Business Generator and the Innovation Centre. These issues are their core business.”

It sounds like HTRIC tackles everything, from lab to application? 

“Yes, and that is actually the tricky part. You do have to go into depth scientifically, which requires a certain focus. But inevitably, if you want more innovation, you have to consider the entire chain. Early on, you have to analyse: what are the promising themes, and what are the best angles for improvement? And then you have to think about who to collaborate with to actually make this happen. Exactly that, finding useful collaborations, is what HTRIC is very good at.”

You are a scientist at heart, but apparently you also like those overarching questions? 

“Yes, I do like a bit of a challenge. That suits me. And what we do here at HTRIC is super challenging. Plus: as soon as something moves towards an application, it becomes much easier to explain why it is important.”

Northern collaboration for innovation in healthcare 

The Health Technology Research and Innovation Cluster (HTRIC – pronounced ‘hattrick’) was established in 2022 to accelerate innovation in healthcare. HTRIC does this by creating new and sustainable connections between researchers, entrepreneurs, students and teachers, and by promoting collaboration. HTRIC connects the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), the Faculty of Science and Engineering of the University of Groningen (RUG), the Hanze University of Applied Sciences, the NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences and the Life Cooperative, a Groningen cooperative of companies, knowledge institutes and healthcare institutions. In 2024, the Ubbo Emmius Foundation (UEF) awarded HTRIC 18.4 million euros for research over the next five years.