Susanne van den Brink pioneered the stem cell-based 3D mouse gastruloids (“embryonic organoids”) model system during her Master’s internship in the Martinez Arias laboratory (Cambridge University, UK, 2012-2013). During her Ph.D. in the Alexander van Oudenaarden laboratory (Hubrecht Institute, The Netherlands, 2014-2020), she characterized mouse and human gastruloids in detail using single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, which resulted in a first somite-forming version of the gastruloids model. She recently completed her postdoc in Barcelona, where she characterized and improved mouse haemogenic gastruloids, which reconstruct embryonic blood development in vitro with spatial and temporal accuracy. In October 2025, she started a short second postdoc in the Cristina Pina lab in Sanquin (Dutch blood bank, Amsterdam), where she plans to develop human stem cell-based embryo models that capture embryonic blood development in vitro.
