Welcome!

We investigate the developmental trajectories of human organs and tissues, but have a particular interest in the urogenital system.

Dr. Chuva de Sousa Lopes studied Fundamental Biomedical Sciences at the University of Utrecht followed by a PhD in the group of C. Mummery at the Hubrecht Institute, where she became interested in gametogenesis. This was followed by two postdocs in the group of A. Surani and A. McLaren at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, UK supported by a TALENT grant from Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and a Isaac Newton grant. She received a prestigious VENI grant in 2006 to return to the Hubrecht Institute to study a model for in vitro gametogenesis.

Currently, she is Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Embryology at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), Leiden the Netherlands to study human development and gametogenesis. She was awarded the de De Snoo-van’t Hoogerhuijs Foundation prize in 2006 and 2017. In 2015, she received an ASPASIA fellowship from NWO. In 2016, she received a prestigious ERC consolidator grant to investigate in vitro maturation of human oocytes. In 2018, she was co-recipient of a Dutch Cancer Society grant to decipher mutation in pre-leukemia human fetal cells. In 2019, she was awarded a VICI grant by ZonMW to study the role of the sex-chromosomes in human gemetogenesis.

Our research and teaching activities are at the interface between stem cells and germ cells and the role that pluripotency and epigenetics play at the interface. Our work combines the use of human and mouse organs and cells with confocal imaging, tissue culture, and state-of-the-art sequencing technologies. We collaborate closely with the Dept. Gynecology, LUMC and the Dept. Biomedical Data Sciences, LUMC.

Other activities:
–       Elected member of the Special Interest Group “Stem Cells”, ESHRE
–       Dutch national “basic scientist” representative, ESHRE
–       Member of taskforce preparing Female Fertility Preservation guidelines, ESHRE
–       Guest Professor at the Dept. Reproductive Medicine, University Ghent, Belgium (2013-2019)
–       Executive Editor of Gene, Elsevier
–       Associate Editor of Scientific Reports, Springer Nature