Goal of the working group To provide a platform for experimental cardiac electrophysiologists in the Netherlands to interact and exchange knowledge, with the aim of facilitating a synergistic approach to research on life- threatening arrhythmias.

Why a working group on Electrophysiology of Arrhythmias?

The Netherlands has a longstanding and internationally recognized tradition in cardiac arrhythmia research, as exemplified by the research groups of Professors Durrer, Wellens, Janse and Allessie.
Over the last decades electrophysiological research has become more interdisciplinary, mainly due to the rise of the fields of genetics and molecular biology.  As a result, a majority of international meetings on arrhythmias have increasingly shifted their focus to molecular and genetic topics. We of course welcome this interdisciplinary approach as it provides novel insights and opportunities to translate basic science to patient care. However, we also feel that scientific discussion on electrophysiological mechanisms should remain a strong focus. This view is shared by the biannual Gordon Research Conference on Cardiac Arrhythmias (https://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?id=13282), which centers on cardiac electrophysiology. Over the past decade, the Amsterdam and Maastricht groups have organized meetings of the ‘Mines Society’ for arrhythmia research. There, the opportunity of PhD students and postdocs to talk with each other and their mentors about electrophysiological details of their research has been perceived as stimulating and highly valuable. We would therefore like to use the Mines meeting as a platform to recreate this environment at the national level, especially for young electrophysiologists. In this way, Dutch research groups can maintain their position at the forefront of research in cardiac electrophysiology, continuing a decades-long tradition of excellence. 

Coordinators:

Dr. Sander Verheule: s.verheule@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Dr. Bastiaan Boukens: b.j.boukens@amc.uva.nl

Preliminary list of members: 

Dr. Daniel Pijnappels Department of Cardiology, LUMC 

Dr. Sander Verheule Department of Physiology, MUMC 

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schotten Department of Physiology, MUMC 

Dr. Toon van Veen Department of Medical Physiology, UMCU 

Prof. Dr. Marc Vos Department of Medical Physiology, UMCU 

Dr. Marcel van der Heijden Department of Medical Physiology, UMCU 

Dr. Ruben Coronel Department of Experimental Cardiology, AUMC 

Dr. Carol Ann Remme Department of Experimental Cardiology, AUMC 

Prof. Dr. Joris de Groot Department of Cardiology, AUMC 

Dr. Bastiaan Boukens Department of Medical Biology, AUMC

Start date: June 2020

 

Proposed activities: 
Annual Symposium on Electrophysiology of Life-threatening Arrhythmias 
– We welcome scientist from all Dutch Universities that work on cardiac electrophysiology. The symposium will be composed of 3 sessions of 4 talks. We encourage the speakers to present ongoing and unpublished research in order to facilitate discussions. 

Work discussion with working group nucleus members 
– This meeting will be held twice per year. The goal of this meeting is to discuss collaborative projects with the aim to write  grant proposals. 

Lab visits 
– We will facilitate exchange of electrophysiological skills between groups by encouraging lab visits by PhD candidates and postdocs in order to learn or optimize electrophysiological techniques of other labs.

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