Origin

Born within the Department of Cardiology of one of the most advanced university hospitals in Europe, G-CURE is a modern institute built on strong scientific foundations dating back to the 18th century. The Department of Cardiology has a strong scientific track record with over 550 scientific publications between 2008-2011, including several publications in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet and Nature.

Board

The G-CURE management team consists of:

Chief Scientific and Executive Officer – Adriaan A. Voors, MD, PhD, Professor of Cardiology

Adriaan Voors is Professor of Cardiology and specialized in heart failure. Dr Voors has been working as a cardiologist at the University Medical Center Groningen since July 2003. He is currently the head of the Heart Failure Clinic and the Department of Echocardiography of the University Medical Center Groningen. In 2007, he became a Clinical Established Investigator of the Netherlands Heart Foundation, Associate Professor of Cardiology, President of the Heart Failure Working Group and board member of the Pharmacotherapy Working Group of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology. In May 2010, he became Professor of Cardiology at the University Medical Center Groningen. Professor Voors works as a clinical cardiologist, teaches cardiology to students at the University of Groningen, and has supervised of 23 PhD candidates. He has (co)authored over 200 peer-reviewed papers and several books and chapters, mainly on heart failure, and he is deputy editor of the European Journal of Heart Failure and an editorial board member for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Netherlands Heart Journal and Cardiovascular Drugs and Therapy. Professor Voors is project leader for a large-scale European FP7 project in personalized medicine in heart failure patients. He also has extensive experience designing and conducting phase II/III clinical trials in heart failure (principal investigator for 6 phase II heart failure trials, executive/steering committee member for 13 phase II/III heart failure trials, and member of the data safety monitoring board for 3 phase II-III heart failure trials).

Chief Operating Officer – Ruben de Jong, MSc

Ruben de Jong studied biological and medical laboratorial research in Groningen, medical biology in Amsterdam and obtained his master degree in policy analysis, management and entrepreneurship in 2005. Between 2004 and 2011 Ruben held a number of project management positions at Xendo Drug Development BV and later QPS Netherlands BV, a phase 1 CRO. In these roles he was responsible for a portfolio of >25 phase 1/2a studies per year. From 2011 to 2018 Ruben was appointed as Director Project Management and a member of the management team at this CRO. Since January 2018, Ruben has been the Head of Research for the UMCG department of Cardiology, where he is responsible for the operational aspects of clinical research conducted by the department of Cardiology.

Teamwork

G-CURE maintains a large network of local, national and international specialists in the fields of regulatory affairs, pre-clinical studies, translational medicine, phase I and phase II-III studies, data management and scientific writing. For each project, we assemble a fit-to-purpose team of experts dedicated to making your promising drug a success.

UMCG

The University of Groningen was founded in 1614. In 1797, the Nosocomium Academicum was established, now known as the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG). The UMCG currently employs over 10.000 people, trains 3400 medical students, and handles 32.000 hospital admissions and 425.000 outpatient consultations per year. 1600 scientific publications and 300 PhD theses are delivered each year.

Department of Cardiology (head: D.J. van Veldhuisen, MD, PhD, Professor of Cardiology)

The Department of Cardiology employs 330 staff, including 25 cardiologists and 15 residents, and handles 5.300 hospital admissions and 18.000 outpatient visits per year. The Department of Cardiology conducts scientific research, with a special focus on heart failure, left ventricular remodeling, and atrial fibrillation. Between 2008 and 2011, the department contributed to more than 550 scientific publications, including several in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet and Nature. In addition, the Department of Cardiology initiated several studies on novel cardiovascular treatment options. Since 2010, the Department of Cardiology has been running the European Journal of Heart Failure, one of the the highest ranked heart failure journals worldwide.

Cardio Research

Since 1992, the Department of Cardiology has been operating a dedicated research department – Cardio Research. Cardio Research has performed over 250 clinical trials in cardiology, both sponsored and investigator initiated trials. Cardio Research employs project managers, research physicians, screening nurses, research nurses and research assistants. Residents and cardiologists from the Department of Cardiology are actively involved in the execution of individual trials. Our Project Managers are dedicated to organizing your research program effectively and efficiently, including obtaining approval from the IRB and the Competent Authority. Our research physicians and screening nurses are dedicated to the identification and inclusion of eligible patients. Our research nurses and assistants have a longstanding experience in the planning, execution and documentation of clinical studies in compliance with GCP. Cardio Research operates a research outpatient clinic with two examination rooms, a blood collection and processing lab, echocardiography facilities, medication and sample storage with 24-hour temperature monitoring.

Experimental Cardiology (head: R.A. de Boer, MD, PhD, Professor of Cardiology)

The division of Experimental Cardiology conducts cutting-edge experimental and translational research focused on uncovering novel disease pathways and developing new therapies. Various screening methods are used to identify novel targets, ranging from cellular and animal models of myocyte hypertrophy and heart failure, to clinical studies including large genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Potential targets are investigated in series of high throughput experiments, and further categorized based on experimental outcomes. The most promising and relevant targets emerging from this process are studied in greater depth in transgenic animal models, pharmacological animal studies and, ultimately, proof-of-concept clinical trials. The division employs professors, post-doctoral fellows, PhD candidates, and technicians, with mastery of several experimental techniques. Our cell biology group works with cultured cardiomyocytes, employing over-expression and knock down assays, and several studies of cell growth, differentiation and proliferation. Our animal lab uses mouse and rat models of hypertrophy and heart failure, both of the left and right ventricle, and uses techniques including echocardiography and invasive hemodynamics. A mouse MRI was recently obtained to optimize functional studies. The genetics group participates in numerous genetic cohorts, and leads cohorts on LVH and heart failure. Several residents and cardiologists have completed their PhD research at our laboratories, creating strong connections between the laboratory and our clinical department. The division of Experimental Cardiology provides a pivotal and vital connection between preclinical and clinical research, allowing swift validation of novel targets and drugs, transitioning from animal studies to phase I and II clinical studies, and further implementation in the clinical phase.