ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø

Where classical implants in the body are designed to be as invisible as possible to prevent an inflammatory response, Anthal Smits, who specializes in tissue regeneration, deliberately activates the immune system. Inflammation is not just something you need to avoid, says Smits. It's also the start of the healing process. Without an inflammatory response, the body doesn't get the signal to repair itself.

Billions of tiny construction workers in your body

Anthal Smits is a biomedical engineer through and through. He once studied mechanical engineering, but became fascinated by the human body. During his doctoral research, he developed regenerative heart valves made from biodegradable plastic that are slowly broken down by the body itself and replaced by the patient's own cellular material.

The more I learn about the body, the more I'm amazed, he says. White blood cells, which play a key role in the immune system, are essentially like site supervisors on a construction project. When surgeons implant an artificial heart valve, within a day it's already covered in white blood cells that attract other cells.

White blood cells signal to other cells that something needs to be repaired, and those cells then act like millions of tiny construction workers in your body, building a new heart valve on the transplant scaffold, which eventually dissolves completely. What remains is a fully natural heart valve, made by the body itself.

All those cells communicate with each other like a whole bunch of tiny people inside you, going about their work without you even knowing. They sense their environment, adapt their function based on what they find, and collaborate like a true collective. I find that fascinating.

Anthal Smits
Associate Professor of Immunoregeneration

A regenerative stent for blood vessels

Activating the body's own immune system also forms the foundation of , the ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø spin-off that emerged from years of research by Smits and his colleagues. The company develops regenerative stents: thin tubes made of biodegradable polymer that keep a blood vessel open, then dissolve while the body forms a new vessel wall.

The stent disappears; the healthy tissue remains. In clinical trials, the technology is now being applied to patients with peripheral artery disease and dangerous vascular narrowings — an innovation that can literally prevent amputations.

When research reaches that stage, the scientist's role changes. At some point it's no longer just about ideas — it's also about regulations and manufacturing, Smits explains. Then it becomes a different game, with investors and a whole lot of precise repetition. That's necessary, but it's not my strongest suit as a scientist. That's why the collaboration with a spin-off company that focuses specifically on those aspects is so important.

He maintains close ties with STENTiT. We analyze results together, formulate new research questions — the interplay between science and medical applications remains important.

Improving lives, not prolonging them

Our goal is not to extend lives, but to improve the quality of them, says Smits. We make heart valves for young children, because they still have a whole life ahead of them. That way we can have a major impact, both for the patient and for society in the long run. For investors it's often important that there's also a direct market — that can be frustrating at times.

Researchers want regenerative treatments to be accessible to everyone. A business case with investors is an important pathway to hospital adoption, but Smits also emphasizes that open knowledge sharing is essential.

We don't constantly file for patents — instead, we aim to publish our results as transparently as possible. Sharing knowledge with the general public, for example through an exhibition at Dutch Design Week, is incredibly important for building broad support for new technologies.

The future of regenerative care

According to Smits, the future of his research lies not so much in new technology, but in personalized care.

The next step is being able to create implants that are truly tailored to a specific patient. No more one-size-fits-all, he explains. That's what regenerative medicine should be: affordable, effective, and accessible to everyone.

Biomedical engineers form a vital link between biology, technology, and clinical practice. You have to speak the language of the physician, the immunologist, the biologist, and the engineer, Anthal Smits explains. Without the bridging role of the biomedical engineer, they find and understand each other far less.

Together, these experts work as a collective — just like the billions of cells in our bodies that collaborate to keep us healthy — on solutions that no single discipline could achieve on its own.