Heart for the heart

Uyên Châu’s research focuses on pacemaker therapy for cardiac arrhythmias and heart failure. She has secured a considerable number of grants, which she uses for various projects within this field. “During my cardiology training, I applied for a Dekker Clinical Scientist grant from the Dutch Heart Foundation, which I was awarded. We used it to study the relationship between ventricular arrhythmias and pacemaker therapy. As a young doctor, I saw a patient who suddenly developed life-threatening arrhythmias after a routine pacemaker implantation for heart failure. That was my inspiration for this project. I hired technical physician Karin Smits. She is my first PhD candidate, whom I supervise together with my own supervisors Frits Prinzen and Kevin Vernooy.”

“Currently, I am the principal supervisor for three PhD students and five Master's students: quite a large group. I supervise them together with Roel Meiburg, biomedical engineer at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). The students have backgrounds in medicine, clinical technology and biomedical technology. Because of this diversity they can learn a lot from each other and consult with each other.”

“I’m delighted with the people I’ve been able to hire for my research. They are highly skilled and motivated, and often have experience across multiple disciplines. Julien Garnier, for example, is a biomedical engineer but also has extensive experience in the cardiac catheterisation laboratory. He is involved in the Dekker Team Science project of the Dutch Heart Foundation, which I am conducting together with Roel from the TU/e. We investigate how the pumping function of the heart improves in people who receive a new type of pacemaker. During implantation, I measure blood flow under different pacemaker settings. Roel uses these data to develop a computer model for patients with heart failure, allowing us to test pacemaker strategies virtually.”

In 2025, Uyên Châu was awarded an NWO Veni grant. “With this funding, we aim to investigate how pacemaker therapy can be better applied in patients who have had a myocardial infarction. This is a particularly vulnerable patient group. They often have scar tissue in the heart muscle and therefore respond less well to conventional pacemaker therapy. Recently, a new pacemaker technique has been developed that stimulates the electrical conduction system rather than the heart muscle itself. This is called conduction system pacing. However, it is not yet clear how these pacemakers should be programmed and followed up, so that is what we intend to explore.”

“Together with VDI Technologies and the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven, I am conducting research into ultra-high frequency ECG. This is a new type of electrocardiogram that feels exactly the same to patients, but with smarter software and by measuring electrical signals from the heart at higher frequencies, we can extract much more information from it. The technique also shows how electrical impulses are conducted in the heart. This is very insightful for cardiologists, but I also enjoy showing it to my patients. Eindhoven was the first place in the Netherlands to use this technique, and that's where I learned how to use it. With a grant from the Dutch Heart Foundation and the Anna Maria van Schurman Stipedium grant, I hired cardiologist-in-training Florien Klein to introduce it in Maastricht.”

At the fiftieth Dies Natalis of UM, Uyên Châu received the dissertation prize, which came as a surprise to her. “I hadn’t applied for it, so I’m not sure how that happened,” she laughs. “My PhD trajectory lasted a year and a half, because I had already been conducting research and publishing papers on small, technical studies I had devised myself as a student. Sometimes I felt like I was just exploring, because I wasn't part of a consortium or a large, well-thought-out project. Looking back, I am very grateful to my supervisors for giving me the freedom and encouragement to explore what I was curious about. That allowed me to come up with project proposals myself.”

Uyên Châu hopes that her research will enable cardiologists to determine in advance how best to treat each individual patient. “So assessing each individual case, instead of using the same pacemaker therapy for everyone. My aim is to develop techniques that make this much easier in practice and that can be used by many cardiologists, not only in academic medical centres but specifically in smaller centres too. I also hope that my PhD candidates are happy, developing well, and feeling comfortable within the group. I’m very happy when the students are doing well and experiencing success; as a supervisor, that gives you a great deal of satisfaction.”

As the recipient of the Anna Maria van Schurman Stipend scholarship, Uyên Châu is organising a symposium on 10 March in the context of International Women’s Day. “We invited inspiring speakers, not only from cardiology, but from across the broader cardiovascular field. We asked them to speak about their research, of course, but also about their personal journey and any challenges they may have faced along the way. I hope for an engaging scientific session, but also that it will become an open discussion about the obstacles many female researchers encounter. Connection and mutual empowerment, that is our aim.”

The Anna Maria van Schurman Symposium takes place on 10 March 2026. Registration is open until Friday 6 March. More information and the programme are available on the website.

Text and photo: Joëlle van Wissen