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Uyên Châu Nguyên wins UM Dissertation Prize 2025

Uyên Châu Nguyên wins UM Dissertation Prize 2025

29 January 2026

During the Dies Natalis of Maastricht University, Uyên Châu Nguyên received the UM Dissertation Prize 2025.

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Global research network launched to study menopause and heart health

Global research network launched to study menopause and heart health

20 January 2026

Ten international health research funders, including the Dutch Heart Foundation, are investing $10 million in a new global research network to improve early prevention of cardiovascular disease in women. The initiative focuses on understanding how menopause affects heart health and how early intervention can reduce risk.

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Carim Maastricht
Carim Maastricht

Frits Prinzen

Professor

Frits Prinzen is emeritus professor of Physiology. He studied Medical Biology in Utrecht and defended his PhD in Maastricht in 1982. His research focusses on the relation between the electrical activation and mechanical contraction and pump function of the heart, with specific application to pacemaker therapies in heart failure. His work is highly translational, ranging from preclinical to clinical research and more recently also using computer simulations. Results from his work provided new insights in and opportunities for pacemaker therapies. He has participated in the CTMM-COHFAR consortium and has been and is workpackage leader in several EU-funded projects, including an International Training Network (Personalised in silico Cardiology). Several of his team members achieved personal grants (ZonMw Veni, Vidi, Clinical Fellow; Netherlands Heart Foundation junior and senior postdoc; young staff member). Besides, he ran multiple investigator-initiated studies that were funded by industry. He has been chairman of the Cardiovascular System Dynamics Society and of the Innovation Committee of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA). Currently he is member of the Scientific Initiatives Committee of EHRA. He is (co-)author on 330 scientific articles, with >10,000 citations and H-index of 56.

His main research topic is regional cardiac mechanics and long-term structural and functional adaptations to various conditions, with emphasis on asynchronous electrical activation and cardiac resynchronisation. Primarily animal experimental work, but with important links to Biomedical Engineering (computer models of cardiac electrophysiology and mechanics) and Cardiology (patients with pacemakers, bundle branch block, heart failure). With this background Prof. Frits Prinzen is a world expert on pacing therapies, both for bradycardia and for heart failure (cardiac resynchronisation therapy, CRT).

Frits-prinzen
Department of Physiology
Universiteitssingel 50, 6229 ER Maastricht
PO Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht
T: +31(0)43 3881080
  • 2025
    • van Koll, J., Luermans, J. G. L. M., Joza, J., Burri, H., Curila, K., Bressi, E., Grieco, D., van Kuijk, S. M. J., Rijks, J. H. J., van Stipdonk, A. M. W., Smits, K. C., Prinzen, F. W., Rademakers, L. M., Vernooy, K., & Nguyên, U. C. (2025). Heterogeneity in clinical judgment of septal lead position and capture type in left bundle branch area pacing. Heart Rhythm, 22(12), 3218-3227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrthm.2025.03.1959
    • Prinzen, F. W., & van der Vusse, G. J. (2025). Questionable metabolic flexibility during cardiac resynchronization therapy. European Heart Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaf818
    • Prinzen, F. W., & Lumens, J. (2025). Atrioventricular Interval Modulation: Looking Beyond Blood Pressure Needed?JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology, 11(11), 2505-2508. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacep.2025.07.022
    • Mizner, J., Beela, A., Linkova, H., Vesela, J., Sussenbek, O., Stros, P., Smisek, R., Jurak, P., Leinveber, P., Lipoldova, J., Nagy, A., Waldauf, P., Lumens, J., Vernooy, K., Prinzen, F., & Curila, K. (2025). Electrical and mechanical interventricular dyssynchrony coupling in patients with bradycardia: A UHF-ECG validation trial. Heart Rhythm, 22(9), 2382-2390. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrthm.2025.02.031
    • Prinzen, F. W. (2025). Left Ventricular Mechanics During Left Ventricular Septal Pacing are Similar to Those During Left Bundle Branch Pacing. JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology, 11(8), 1862-1865. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacep.2025.04.036
    • Ren, H., Qin, Q., Dong, Q., Ainiwaer, A., Yuan, H., Zhu, H., Cao, Z., Chen, Y., Wesselius, A., Zeegers, M. P., Prinzen, F. W., Chen, L., Yu, E. Y.-W., Luo, H., & TREND Cohort Study Investigators (2025). Smartphone-Measured Heart Sounds for Atrial Fibrillation Screening in Community Populations. Circulation, 152(4), 283-285. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.125.073828
    • Smits, K. C., Lempers, T. E. M., Strik, M., Stoks, J., Meiburg, R., Cluitmans, M. J. M., Volders, P. G. A., Vernooy, K., Prinzen, F. W., & Nguyen, U. C. (2025). The influence of delayed ventricular activation on cardiac repolarization: Insights from electrocardiographic imaging. Journal of Physiology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1113/JP288569
    • Zamorano, J. L., Vörös, G., Calvi, V., Osca, J., Quesada, A., Vernooy, K., Martinez, J. G., Maass, A. H., Nof, E., Tolosana, J. M., Pardo, M., Barr, C., Fernández, I., Merino, J. L., Ellery, S., Ricoy-Martínez, E., Belotti, G., Seidlmayer, L., Garcia, S., ... Van Erven, L. (2025). Sex-specific response to cardiac resynchronization therapy: the BIO|WOMEN trial. International Journal of Cardiology, 438, Article 133526. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2025.133526
    • Lempers, T. E. M., Smits, K. C., van Koll, J., Dural, M., van Stipdonk, A. M. W., Lumens, J., Luermans, J. G. L. M., Vernooy, K., Prinzen, F. W., van Dam, P., & Nguyên, U. C. (2025). An in-silico analysis of the influence of left bundle branch block and myocardial fibrosis on electrocardiographic QRS duration and morphology and vectorcardiographic QRS area. Journal of Electrocardiology, 91, Article 154043. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2025.154043
    • Li, Y., Zhao, Z., Ainiwaer, A., Mei, D., Zhang, P., Prinzen, F. W., & Luo, H. (2025). Smartphone for heart sound measurement in hospital: feasibility and influencing factors. European Heart Journal - Digital Health, 6(3), 486-495. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjdh/ztaf007
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