Research focus concerns cardiovascular development and disease models based on human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC). Immediate interests are on developing biophysical techniques for characterization and functional analysis of cardiovascular cells from hPSC with the ultimate aim of understanding underlying disease mechanisms and drugs for treatment through bioassays. The interest derives from a long-standing fascination on how differentiation choices are made in development and the roles played by growth factors. With the development of human iPS cells by reprogramming somatic cells from patients, enthusiasm for potential clinical applications has grown, particularly in using these cells to identify personalized drug targets and sensitivities and ways correct disease phenotypes. Aside from cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells take a central role in the research, again in a clinical setting where we study a hemorrhaging disease (HHT) caused by mutations in TGFß receptors. We revealed several important mechanism underlying the disease and investigate several candidate drugs now being prescribed to patients. Through collaboration with clinicians in Leiden and Utrecht and engineers in UTwente, we are currently implementing methods for creating synthetic 2-D and 3-D normal and (genetically) diseased vascular and myocardial tissue. These study areas form part of the NWA on personalized medicine, early diagnosis and regenerative medicine.