PhD: 19-20
Titus van den Heuvel joined our lab at the end of his medical studies for PhD training in March 2019. The focus of his PhD is the optogenetic engineering of the whole heart for biological arrhythmia management, supported by a European Research Council Starting grant (ERC-2016-STG).
Titus was born in Belgium and has lived in Australia, Canada, the United States, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Titus has completed degrees in chemistry and music performance (organ) at Oberlin College (Ohio, USA) and worked for several years as a pipe organ builder before beginning his medical studies. Titus’s interest in electrophysiology originated during his clinical work in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, where the significant health impact of cardiac rhythm disorders was manifest on the ward every day. Given this background, joining the Laboratory of Experimental Cardiology on an arrhythmia-related project requiring affinity with surgery and device development seemed a fitting continuation of his medical career.
Dr. Thomas van Brakel of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery co-supervises Titus for the surgical skills required in this line of research.
