Dr. Karin de Winter-de Groot

Name, position and organisation

Dr Karin de Winter – de Groot
Paediatric pulmonary specialist
Wilhelmina Children's Hospital, part of UMC Utrecht

What is Utrecht Science Park? And what does it mean to you?

At Utrecht Science Park, people and resources from various institutions, businesses and hospitals are interconnected. Knowledge, innovation, interaction and creativity come together here, and this combination creates the perfect breeding ground for new developments and solutions.
For me, working at Utrecht Science Park means broadening and deepening my work. All of the inspiring interactions I have with Utrecht Science Park colleagues from different disciplines (including Regenerative Medicine researchers at the Hubrecht Institute, colleagues at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and doctors from the Princess Máxima Center) give me a broad perspective, greater mutual appreciation and high job satisfaction.

What is Utrecht Science Park’s impact on society? And what role do you play in this?

Utrecht Science Park’s impact is significant, and if we continue to collaborate effectively, it can keep getting bigger. With so many possibilities to join forces, we can reach further and pursue higher goals, such as better health and more sustainability for people and the environment.

Together with colleagues from the Department of (Paediatric) Pulmonary Diseases, the Department of Regenerative Medicine and the Hubrecht Institute, we are using intestinal and airway organoids to develop drugs for people with rare congenital and life-threatening pulmonary diseases like cystic fibrosis (CF). Together with colleagues from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, the Department of Infectious Diseases and the Princess Máxima Center, we are aiming to find better treatments for children with cancer and a serious fungal infection in the lungs.

I am happy to play a bridging role between the laboratory and the clinic. We bring research material from the clinic to the laboratory, and we are in turn responsible for using new lab findings to patients’ benefit as quickly as possible.

What is your personal dream within your role? What do you want to achieve in the next 5–10 years?

My dream is that serious and life-threatening pulmonary diseases like CF will become a thing of the past, and that we will also be able to help those patients with a very rare form of the disease through treatment. I would love to see us achieve that in the next 5 to 10 years.
I hope that collaboration will be a matter of course and that we will no longer work for ourselves, but instead always think: ‘Who can I ask to join me in finding a solution?’ and ‘How can I help someone else to achieve his or her goals?’

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