The Young@Heart Board

The board consists of previous scientific council members who have show great interest and ambitions in their work with Young@Heart and they are periodically invited to apply for a position on the board.

All board members are available as mentors in the mentor program

Verena

Verena Schwach (Twente University) 
Chair

Dr. Verena Schwach is an assistant professor in the Department of BioEngineering Technologies at the University of Twente. Her research focuses on the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) for tissue engineering and organ-on-chip technology, aimed at studying cardiac development, disease modeling, and cardiotoxicity screening. She received her PhD from Leiden University Medical Center, where she specialized in cardiac differentiation of hPSCs and cardiac repair. Dr. Schwach is passionate about the potential of hPSCs to differentiate into any cell type and enjoys observing the beating stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes in the lab. As a Young@Heart board member, I am committed to supporting initiatives that inspire the next generation about cardiovascular research, collaborating with experts, and engaging with the community to drive impactful projects. Verena joint the board in 2023.

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Inge Mulder (Amsterdam UMC)
Co-Chair

Inge Mulder is an assistant professor at the Biomedical Engineering & Physics department of the Amsterdam UMC (Location AMC). She is a dedicated neurovascular researcher with a main focus on acute ischemic stroke. Her research aims to unravel the causes of neurovascular (dys-)function in stroke, and impaired microvascular reperfusion after recanalization treatment. She combines her experimental in vivo research with in vitro and clinical projects to ensure translational value. In addition, she acts as manager of the in vivo multi-photon imaging lab. Inge recently joined the board of Young & Heart in 2024.

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Aernout

Aernout Fiolet (UMCU)

Aernoud Fiolet is cardiologist in training at the UMC Utrecht. Aernoud combines his clinical work with scientific work that focuses on improving sustainable research and on drug development and implementation. He obtained his PhD at Utrecht University and joined the board in 2024.

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V. Meraviglia

Viviana Meraviglia (Leiden UMCU)

Viviana is a Senior Researcher at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and obtained her PhD in Translational and Molecular Medicine from the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy. She has extensive experience in cellular and molecular biology, with a strong interest in cardiovascular research. Her work focuses on modeling inherited and acquired cardiomyopathies using human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-based systems, with the goal of advancing not only cardiovascular disease modeling but also drug screening and safety testing in a more personalized manner. By combining expertise in stem cell and cardiac biology with advanced genome editing, Viviana is developing complex multicellular hiPSC-based models that better reproduce the organization and dynamic function of the native heart. Viviana joined the board in 2025.

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MarijnPeters

Marijn Peters (TU Eindhoven)

Marijn is Postdoctoral Researcher of Translational Cardiovascular Bioengineering at the Department of Biomedical Engineeering (section Soft Tissue Engineering & Mechanobiology), the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems at Eindhoven University of Technology and the Department of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery and the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital in Utrecht. She obtained her PhD in 2021 at the University Medical Center Utrecht on cardiac regeneration and in vitro modelling of human disease where she was a visiting researcher at Stanford Medicine. Her research vision focuses on developing clinically relevant regenerative strategies tailored to children with congenital heart disease, with specific attention to immunological compatibility, functional cardiac integration and personalized medicine.  Marijn joined the board in 2025. 

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Past Board Members

 
 

Board and Scientific Council Membership 

The board membership is for at least 2 years. To ensure continuity of Y@H, the first term of the current board members may be extended to max. 3 years. The scientific council provides and appoints future candidates. Scientific council members are committed and active participation is expected. Representation of gender and Dutch university medical centers is pursued, but is subjected to the applications.