Panel Discussion "Bridging the Gap: Translating Research into Clinical Practice and Industry Use"

You can now rewatch engaging conversation exploring how to move innovative research from the lab into real-world clinical and industrial applications.

Panel Discussion "Bridging the Gap: Translating Research into Clinical Practice and Industry Use" was held on Tuesday 16 September 2025 at 15:00-16:00 CEST.

Featuring Prof. Monika Colombo (Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering Fluids and Energy, Aarhus University), Prof. Frank J.H. Gijsen (Department of Cardiology, Erasmus MC and Department of Biomechanical Engineering, TU Delft), and Dr. Simon Winther (Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Medicine - Cardiac research clinic, Aarhus University), and moderated by members of the VPH Institute Young Scientists Committee Luca Bontempi and Anna Ramella, this panel highlighted challenges, opportunities, and success stories at the interface of technology, healthcare, and industry.

You can watch the recordings on YouTube

Prof. Monika Colombo is Tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Dept of Mechanical Engineering and Production, Aarhus University, Denmark. During her PhD in Bioengineering at the Politecnico di Milano, she spent 2019-2020 at MIT as a Progetto Rocca Doctoral Fellow. Her Doctoral dissertations was awarded as Best Doctoral Thesis in 2022 from both the European Society of Biomechanics and the Italian National Group og Bioengineering. She was post-doctoral researcher at ETH Zurich and then appointed at Aarhus University in November 2022, where she founded the CAReENG (Cardiovascular Engineering) group. Her group research mainly focuses on cardiovascular engineering, integrating in-vitro, in-silico and advanced imaging approaches.

Prof. Frank Gijsen obtained his PhD at Eindhoven University of Technology with a dissertation on "Modeling of Wall Shear Stress in Large Arteries." After his PhD, he started a bioengineering consultancy company and was involved in setting up the research program for the newly founded Dept of Biomedical Engineering at TU/e. He is associate professor at the Dept of Biomedical Engineering at Erasmus MC since 2014, and associate professor at the Dept of Biomechanical Engineering at TU Delft since 2020. From 2025, he is full professor and currently serves as Head of the Cardiovascular Biomechanics Section. His research interests include the effect of blood flow-induced shear stress on atherosclerosis, plaque mechanics and rupture, thrombus mechanics and device design, as well as the application of digital twins in a clinical setting and human disease models.

Simon Winther, MD, DMSc, PhD is a senior consultant in cardiovascular imaging at Gødstrup Hospital, Denmark (ORCID: 0000-0001-8872-3681). He is PI of several clinical trials with non-invasive imaging of coronary artery disease and has served as a task force member for the 2024 ESC Guidelines on the Management of Chronic Coronary Syndromes.

This webinar was organised within the VPH Keynote Webinar series, a quarterly event organised by the VPH Young Scientists Committee that provides a forum for access to senior community members and their expert competence for chiefly young scientists, but also to the VPH community as a whole.

With the series, VPH wishes to:

• Offer added value to prospective young scientists through core content
• Create visibility of VPH knowledge dissemination for external stakeholders
• Highlight excellence within the VPH, additionally providing student members with a label of quality
• Promote scientific interaction between junior and senior community members and across VPH disciplines

Are you interested in a specific topic or would you like to learn more about certain research?

You can propose names and topics by sending an email to student.committee@vph-institute.org