Last month, on the 28th of June 2024, Amsterdam UMC announced that Tas Group received a grant from ReumaNederland, a foundation supporting research on rheumatoid arthritis.
Grant to study Rheumatoid Arthritis
Tas Group has received a grant of €425,000 from ReumaNederland. With this grant, the group will developorganoids that imitates the inflamed tissue from the joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (the most common inflammatory disease of the joints). Ultimately, they aim to test the effects of different treatments in the laboratory thus predicting the therapy response of individual patients. This research is paving the way to a future with more human-centered research and personalized treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
About Tas Group
Tas Group, led by Prof. Dr. Sander Tas and Dr. Jan Piet van Hamburg, mimics the rheumatoid arthritis synovial tissue by using multicellular 3D systems that recapitulate the cell-cell/cell-matrix interactions and key pro-inflammatory mediators present in the inflamed synovium. Their organoid approach can be used to test the effects of novel diagnostic (molecular imaging) and therapeutic compounds, including small molecule inhibitors and biologics. At the same time, by using human-based models, Tas Group paves the way for animal-free research.