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PhD scholarship for FHML Physician-Clinical Investigator (A-KO) master's student

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) granted a Mosaic Scholarship to nineteen immigrant students. These young and talented researchers can use the scholarship to conduct four years of PhD research. One of the researchers to receive the scholarship is Iran native Siamack Sabrkhany from FHML Maastricht University (UM).

Sabrkhany is one of nineteen winners to receive a 200,000 euro PhD research scholarship. In his research, Sabrkhany will examine the role platelets play in tumour growth. “Tumour growth depends on the growth of new blood vessels. This process (angiogenesis) is stimulated by certain growth factors. Recent studies have revealed that platelets absorb and transport huge amounts of pro-angiogenic and angiogenic agents through the bloodstream. When platelets in tumours attach themselves to blood vessel walls and release their contents, they are theoretically capable of encouraging the process of angiogenesis and therefore also tumour growth,” Sabrkhany explains. He will focus on the underlying mechanisms of angiogenesis and the role platelets play in this as well as their practical clinical applications.

In total, 156 students and graduates responded to the NWO’s call for research proposals. The best candidates were invited to attend various NWO workshops and present their detailed proposals to an evaluation committee. The committee decided to subsidise 19 of the 44 submitted proposals.

Siamack Sabrkhany was born in Iran and moved to the Netherlands at the age of twelve. After finishing secondary school, Sabrkhany moved to Orlando, Florida where he obtained his pre-medicine bachelor’s degree and then to Maastricht University where he graduated with a FHML Bachelor of Molecular Life Sciences. He is currently busy completing the FHML Physician-Clinical Investigator master’s programme.