Chat with us, powered by LiveChat
  • Technology
  • Services
    • Drug Development Partnerships
      • Expand your drug discovery capacity, shoulder to shoulder with our scientific team. Proprietary human disease biology in the OrganoPlate® platform. Together we make the therapeutics of tomorrow.
    • Custom Model & Assay Development
      • We create novel human tissue and disease models in the OrganoPlate® platform. Our experts are looking forward to developing assays according to your specifications.
    • Compound profiling & Screening
      • Get robust compound data in human tissue models through our services. With proven pheno­typic assays in the OrganoPlate® platform, we support your drug discovery and development needs.
    • All Services
      • We offer several services to support your drug discovery and development needs. Find the overview here.
  • Products
  • Applications
    • Perfused Tubules
      • Layered tissues with perfused tubules in the absence of artificial membranes form the heart of our permeability and transport science. Study cell interactions, permeability, absorption, transport, and transcytosis without physical barriers.

    • Cell-Cell Interactions
      • Co-culture layered & structured tissues without artificial membranes with perfect imaging, to study barrier-free cellular interactions, cell-cell signaling, and migration.

    • 3D Cell Migration
      • Evaluate the effect of chemotactic triggers or cells on the migration of cells through an extracellular matrix.

    • Angiogenesis
      • Membrane-free microvascular formation and growth through an extracellular matrix (ECM).

    • Vascularization
      • The missing link in tissue culture: add perfusable human vasculature to your tissue models, and recreate sophisticated microenvironments with OrganoPlate® Graft.

    • All Applications
      • OrganoPlate® enables you to study relevant 3D tissue biology by incorporating perfused tubules, co-culture, and full control over the tissue microenvironment. Find the overview of applications here.

  • Resources & Support
    • Knowledge Center
      • Visit our Knowledge Center to get up to speed with 3D tissue culture and to learn how OrganoPlate® supports your research needs.

        Read our publications, application notes, watch our webinars, or check out the supporting protocols and brochures. All compiled for you, by our scientists.

    • Publications
      • Get inspired by peer-reviewed publications of our scientists, partners, and customers around the globe.

    • Case Studies
      • Get inspired by research done by our scientists, partners, and customers around the globe.

    • Blogs
      • Giving you some food for thought. Read our blogs to learn more about 3D tissue culture, research backgrounds, developments, and its future outlook.
    • Workshops & Trainings
      • Kickstart your experiments with the most sophisticated 3D tissue culture platform. Find out which training fits your 3D tissue modeling needs best.
    • Technical Support
      • Any support questions about purchasing, products, or 3D tissue culture and analysis? Get in touch with our experts.
    • Request a quote
      • Thinking of using OrganoPlate for your research? Request a quote for the product(s) of your interest.

    • FAQ
      • Frequently asked questions answered by our experts. Find here the answer you're looking for.
  • Knowledge Center
  • About Mimetas
  • Expand your drug discovery capacity, shoulder to shoulder with our scientific team. Proprietary human disease biology in the OrganoPlate® platform. Together we make the therapeutics of tomorrow.
  • We create novel human tissue and disease models in the OrganoPlate® platform. Our experts are looking forward to developing assays according to your specifications.
  • Get robust compound data in human tissue models through our services. With proven pheno­typic assays in the OrganoPlate® platform, we support your drug discovery and development needs.
  • We offer several services to support your drug discovery and development needs. Find the overview here.
  • Start today with 3D tissue modeling
    Kickstart your first experiments with the OrganoPlate® through our OrganoStart packages.
  • OrganoFlow®
    Driving precisely-controlled perfusion flow in the OrganoPlate® platform

  • OrganoTEER®
    Enabling fast, automated, and impedance-based TEER measurements in OrganoPlate®. Assay 40 or 64 tissue culture chips with a few clicks, in less than two minutes.

  • Start today with 3D tissue modeling
    Kickstart your experiments with the most sophisticated 3D tissue culture platform. Find out which training fits your 3D tissue modeling needs best.
  • OrganoPlate® is the solution for all in vitro tissue culture applications. Explore the entire OrganoPlate® family and its dedicated instruments here.

  • Thinking of using OrganoPlate for your research? Request a quote for the product(s) of your interest.

  • Layered tissues with perfused tubules in the absence of artificial membranes form the heart of our permeability and transport science. Study cell interactions, permeability, absorption, transport, and transcytosis without physical barriers.

  • Co-culture layered & structured tissues without artificial membranes with perfect imaging, to study barrier-free cellular interactions, cell-cell signaling, and migration.

  • Evaluate the effect of chemotactic triggers or cells on the migration of cells through an extracellular matrix.

  • Membrane-free microvascular formation and growth through an extracellular matrix (ECM).

  • The missing link in tissue culture: add perfusable human vasculature to your tissue models, and recreate sophisticated microenvironments with OrganoPlate® Graft.

  • OrganoPlate® enables you to study relevant 3D tissue biology by incorporating perfused tubules, co-culture, and full control over the tissue microenvironment. Find the overview of applications here.

  • Visit our Knowledge Center to get up to speed with 3D tissue culture and to learn how OrganoPlate® supports your research needs.

    Read our publications, application notes, watch our webinars, or check out the supporting protocols and brochures. All compiled for you, by our scientists.

  • Get inspired by peer-reviewed publications of our scientists, partners, and customers around the globe.

  • Get inspired by research done by our scientists, partners, and customers around the globe.

  • Giving you some food for thought. Read our blogs to learn more about 3D tissue culture, research backgrounds, developments, and its future outlook.
  • Kickstart your experiments with the most sophisticated 3D tissue culture platform. Find out which training fits your 3D tissue modeling needs best.
  • Any support questions about purchasing, products, or 3D tissue culture and analysis? Get in touch with our experts.
  • Thinking of using OrganoPlate for your research? Request a quote for the product(s) of your interest.

  • Frequently asked questions answered by our experts. Find here the answer you're looking for.
  • Learn about our mission, vision, the history of the company, and find out what we mean with MIMETAS-do.
EN

Henriëtte Lanz

 

This interview is part of a series of conversations with the people working at Mimetas. The 'I' in Mimetas focuses on the personal side of the scientists that drive our world. Today we have a chat with Henriëtte Lanz, Director of Model Development and fierce proponent of the Friday afternoon drinks at Mimetas.

How would you describe your job to me, if I were 5 years old?

At Mimetas, we grow tiny pieces of organ tissue in a special plate, called an OrganoPlate. This allows us to do tests on these tissues. Currently, if people want to study a headache, they take a mouse and give that mouse a headache. Then they try to treat that headache with drugs and look at the results. Instead of a mouse, we use tiny pieces of human brain grown in our chips.

What does your average day working at Mimetas look like?

I usually start early, at around 8. That gives me time to go over e-mails and prepare for the day. Then at 9, I have a meeting with my team to discuss ongoing and future projects. After this, I usually have a few calls with customers, going over the projects that we’re running for them. For the rest of the day, I review work-plans and research data. I haven’t worked at the lab bench for quite a while now. Most practical work I do now is when I am helping people. I do miss it a little bit, but it’s impossible to combine practical work with project planning. I also like giving trainings, so I can show people that I know what I am talking about.

What current or future project at Mimetas are you most excited about?

That’s like asking a parent which of her kids she likes best. I like the projects we do for customers the most since those are directly supervised by me and feel like they are my personal projects. What I take great pride in is the project with Roche on the gut model, which now serves as an example for our ideal customer project. We developed a model, after which I went to Roche to train their people how to use it. The biggest success is when they succeed to publish using the model. That went exactly as we hoped. Last week, Roche published an article where they used the model in a clinical setting, testing drugs, and their effects on the gut tissue. That’s our aim with the pharma-customers, so this is a great success.

If you weren’t a successful director of model development at Mimetas, what career would you be in right now?

As I said, I like giving trainings. So, I probably would have gotten my teaching license to start teaching at a high school. But, to be honest, right now I do not think that would have been a good fit for me. My current back-up plan is to start teaching at a school for advanced education. During my PhD, I liked teaching students, which translates into me training pharma-companies to use our models.

Also, when I went to university, I was in doubt whether to study English or Life Sciences and Technology. I personally prefer the English language above the Dutch language, which means I like the English literature more than the Dutch. However, I figured English wouldn’t be diverse enough, and I had to make a choice in the end. So maybe I would’ve been an English teacher.

What is your favourite quote, song or belief, anything that you live by?

I pick a Salsa song. I do not understand the lyrics, because I do not understand Spanish. I pick it because of the positive message. It is my favourite song to dance to. The song is “Yo No Se Mañana” by Luis Enrique, and it translates to “I do not know about tomorrow”. It means that you can’t know the future, so you should live more in the present and stop worrying. I always worry about everything, all the time, so it’s good to let go sometimes. One of the best ways to do that for me is to dance, and this is my favourite song.

If you were the CEO of the company, name one thing you would make compulsory in the office and one thing you would ban in the office.

It should be mandatory to socialize with colleagues, and not just be focused on work. It would be nice if everybody came to the Friday afternoon drinks. I would probably ban the really smelly French cheeses in our office since it smelled like dead fish in the hallway this morning.

Cookies

‘May we use cookies?
Hi there! Thanks for visiting our website. We use cookies to keep track of our website statistics to optimize the user experience. We also use cookies for marketing purposes. You can set your preferences by selecting the options below. Terms of Use & Privacy Policy

Accept all
Accept selected
Decline all