i-HUB – Plus Ultra Utrecht

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Our 2,500 m² start-up floor is designed to fuel innovation. At Kadans, we understand that start-ups evolve rapidly. Designed to support the realisation of ideas, our concept Innovation HUB, or i-HUB for short, features fully-furnished labs and offices tailored to your needs. Whether you need a small, medium or large office, the i-HUB offers different sizes for both lab and office space.

Laboratory modules range from 40 m² up to 104 m². Office space in the i-HUB can be a single desk in the Co-Working Space, or a private office.

Designed to support the realisation of ideas, our concept of the Co-Working space features a fully-furnished office space tailored to your needs. Here, you have the opportunity to rent a single desk in a collaborative and cross-disciplinary environment.

Single desk in a shared, open office environment.

Explore the possibilities, join a thriving community of pioneers, and take your ideas to the next level.

Ask us about availability!

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Exposome-Maps

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Exposome Maps — Geospatial Environmental Exposure Platform

Exposome Maps is an open geospatial data platform developed by Utrecht University’s Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS) through the Exposome-NL and EXPANSE programmes (Horizon 2020). It provides over 200 harmonised, geospatially resolved environmental exposure surfaces — collectively covering the full external exposome — that researchers can link directly to health data in epidemiological studies.

The platform organises exposures across four dimensions. The Physico-Chemical Environment (99 surfaces) includes air pollution (PM2.5, PM10, NO₂, ozone, black carbon), noise, pesticides, weather, night-time light, biodiversity, and electromagnetic fields. The Social Environment (70 surfaces) covers neighbourhood socioeconomic position, social capital, safety, mental health indicators, labour market conditions, and proximity to services. The Built Environment (28 surfaces) captures green, blue, and grey space — parks, waterways, and urban land use. The Food Environment (4 surfaces) characterises food access and a healthy food index.

Surfaces can be explored interactively through the Exposome Data Platform in map or catalogue view, with European and Netherlands coverage, selectable time periods, and full metadata for each surface. Surfaces not directly available through the platform can be requested via a structured data access procedure

Core Capabilities

  • 200+ harmonised geospatial exposure surfaces (Exposome Surfaces) ready for epidemiological linkage
  • Coverage across four exposome dimensions: Physico-Chemical (99 surfaces), Social (70), Built Environment (28), and Food Environment (4)
  • Interactive map and catalogue view via the Exposome Data Platform, with European and Netherlands-level visualisation
  • Data available at varying temporal and spatial resolutions with full provenance and source attribution

Unique Assets

  • Single harmonised inventory spanning air pollution, noise, pesticides, electromagnetic fields, biodiversity, night-time light, neighbourhood socioeconomic position, social capital, and more
  • Developed and validated within large-scale European cohort studies (EXPANSE, Exposome-NL)
  • Open data policy with structured access request procedure for surfaces not directly available on the platform
  • Interoperable with cohort and biobank data for multi-exposure mixture analyses

Typical Users

  • Epidemiologists linking external environmental exposures to health outcomes in population cohorts
  • Urban planners and policymakers assessing the health impact of the built and social environment
  • Data managers building or harmonising exposure datasets across European study sites
  • Researchers designing new cohort studies who need baseline exposure characterisation

Access

  • Freely accessible via exposome.uu.nl for visualisation
  • Data access for research use via structured request form; governed by Data Access and Publication Policy

Air View Mobile Platform

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The Air View Car — Mobile Urban Air Quality Monitoring

Utrecht University’s Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS) operates two Air View Cars that map street-level air quality across European cities with laboratory-grade precision. Unlike fixed monitoring stations, which capture the temporal variation of air pollution, the cars can measure on many streets and generate millions of data points per campaign. This mobile approach produces high-resolution, street-by-street pollution maps that would be impossible to achieve with stationary infrastructure alone.

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Instrumentation

Each car carries a suite of complementary instruments covering the major dimensions of urban air pollution:

  • CAPS NO2 Monitor (Aerodyne)— uses Cavity Attenuated Phase Shift spectroscopy to measure nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) every second. Its fast response time is essential for mobile monitoring, where concentrations can change sharply within metres as the car passes junctions, loading bays, or heavily trafficked corridors.
  • EPC 3783 (TSI) — counts individual ultrafine particles down to approximately 3 nm in diameter. This instrument is central to the project’s focus on ultrafine dust, for which no European regulatory limits currently exist despite growing evidence of health impacts. The water-based design avoids the use of organic solvents, making it well suited to continuous field operation.
  • AE33 Aethalometer (Magee Scientific)— measures black carbon (soot) concentrations every second using optical light absorption across seven wavelengths. This multi-wavelength capability allows the instrument to distinguish between soot from fossil fuel combustion (predominantly traffic) and biomass burning, providing source attribution alongside concentration data.
  • DustTrak DRX (TSI)— measures fine particulate matter (PM2.5), the size fraction regulated under European air quality standards and most strongly associated with cardiovascular and respiratory disease in the epidemiological literature.
  • Partector Pro 2 (Naneos) — measures lung-deposited surface area (LDSA) and particle number size distribution, capturing how particles of different sizes are likely to deposit in the respiratory tract. This goes beyond simple particle counts to provide a health-relevant characterization of the aerosol.

From Data to Impact

Together, these instruments capture the full spectrum of urban air pollution. The data are processed by IRAS into actionable hyperlocal maps that municipalities, urban planners, public health services, and researchers use to design healthier cities: routing cycling and walking infrastructure away from pollution hotspots, positioning green buffers such as hedgerows near schools and playgrounds, and providing the exposure data needed for epidemiological studies linking air quality to mortality, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative outcomes.

Core Capabilities

  • Street-level mapping of NO₂, black carbon, PM2.5, ultrafine particles, and lung-deposited surface area
  • Continuous street-by-street measurements, millions of data points per campaign
  • Source attribution: distinguishes traffic vs. biomass burning emissions

Unique Assets

  • Two fully equipped laboratory-grade mobile monitoring cars
  • Only mobile platform in the Netherlands measuring ultrafine particles (currently unregulated in Europe)
  • Integrated data pipeline from raw sensor output to validated hyperlocal city maps
  • Track record across 10+ European cities since 2019

Typical Users

  • Municipal health services and urban planners designing low-emission zones or green buffers
  • Epidemiologists linking hyperlocal exposure to health outcomes (mortality, cardiovascular, neurological)
  • Architects and area developers optimising building placement and public space
  • Researchers needing high-resolution exposure data for cohort studies

Access

  • Available for collaborative research projects across European cities
  • Data outputs include georeferenced pollution maps suitable for GIS integration and epidemiological linkage

Exposome-Scan

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The Exposome Scan Facility

Background

Human health is shaped not by single exposures but by the totality of chemical, biological, and lifestyle factors encountered across a lifetime — the exposome. Traditional health studies have approached this complexity one chemical at a time, a strategy that is inherently incomplete and poorly suited to capturing the mixture effects, interactions, and cumulative burden that characterise real-world exposure. The Exposome Scan was established to address this gap: to measure the human chemical environment comprehensively, simultaneously, and at population scale.

About the Facility

The Exposome Scan is a collaborative research infrastructure between Leiden University (Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research / LACDR) and Utrecht University (Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences / IRAS), designed to enable high-throughput, untargeted measurement of the human exposome in biological matrices. By combining world-class analytical chemistry with epidemiological expertise, the facility bridges the distance between a biological sample and a meaningful health insight.

What It Measures

The facility applies advanced mass spectrometry — primarily high-resolution liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) — to biological matrices including blood (serum and plasma), urine, and tissue. The goal is to capture as wide a chemical “fingerprint” as possible in a single sample: endogenous metabolites, environmental contaminants (pesticides, persistent organic pollutants, plasticisers, flame retardants, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), pharmaceuticals, and dietary components simultaneously, rather than measuring targeted compounds one by one. Different scans have been developed to target at different depth both exogenuous and endogenuous compounds. Additional, technologies allow for sensitive measurements by for example conctrating with in-line evaporators.

In a single analytical run, the platform can detect and semi-quantify thousands of chemical features across a dynamic concentration range spanning several orders of magnitude. Spectral data are annotated against curated reference libraries and continuously updated as new compounds are characterised, ensuring that the facility’s coverage grows over time. Where full identification is not yet possible, unknown features can be retained and revisited as databases expand — meaning that no signal is discarded prematurely.

Division of Expertise

Leiden brings deep analytical chemistry strength — method development, instrument operation, quality control, and spectral library annotation. The Exposome-Scan facility is hosted by the Dutch Metabolomics Center. Utrecht contributes epidemiological study design, exposure science, and the statistical frameworks needed to link complex multi-exposure profiles to health outcomes in large cohorts. Together this covers the full pipeline: from biobank sample preparation and extraction, through high-throughput mass spectrometric acquisition, to feature detection, annotation, mixture analysis, and biological interpretation. This integrated pipeline reduces the risk of losing signal between analytical and epidemiological stages, which has historically been one of the main bottlenecks in exposome research.

Why It Matters Scientifically

The Exposome Scan approach allows researchers to work in an agnostic, hypothesis-generating mode — identifying which of thousands of detected features associate with a disease outcome — before drilling down into specific compounds for targeted follow-up. This is particularly relevant for diseases where multiple environmental contributors are suspected but no single agent fully explains the observed patterns, such as neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular conditions, metabolic disorders, and adverse reproductive and developmental outcomes.

Beyond environmental epidemiology, the facility supports pharmaco-exposomics applications — examining how ph

Princess Máxima Imaging Center

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The Princess Máxima Imaging Center plays a crucial role in pediatric cancer research by providing state-of-the-art imaging technology and expertise. Microscopy plays a vital role in visualizing the morphology, behavior, and activity of cells over time, enabling a deeper understanding of spatial and temporal dynamics in complex biological systems. By investing in microscopy, researchers gain a unique perspective on the interactions and processes within 3D organoids. This facilitates the study of human biology, drug screening, and examination of cancer and environmental cell interactions, particularly in the context of immunotherapies.

Expert knowledge and support accelerate research through guidance in experimental design, image processing, and quantification. Collaboration and knowledge exchange through user trainings and workshops foster innovation and expedite discoveries. Outcomes include a better understanding of patient heterogeneity, biomarker identification, and insights into therapy resistance mechanisms.

The center empowers researchers with cutting-edge imaging technologies, expert support, and a collaborative environment, enhancing studies, improving outcomes, and advancing therapeutic strategies for children with cancer.

Equipment overview:

  • M80 dissection microscope
  • M205 FA automatized fluorescence stereomicroscope
  • DM6 upright fluorescence microscope
  • DMi8 widefield fluorescence microscope, suitable for live imaging
  • DMi8 THUNDER widefield fluorescence microscope, suitable for live imaging
  • SP8 confocal microscope with 8Khz resonant scanner, suitable for live imaging
  • STELLARIS confocal microscope with 8Khz resonant scanner and WLL, suitable for live imaging
  • LSM880 dual multiphoton/confocal platform equipped with AiryScan suitable for live imaging
  • Nikon Ti-2 Eclipse spinning disk confocal, suitable for live imaging and autonomous microscopy
  • STELLARIS FALCON confocal microscope with 8Khz resonant scanner and WLL, FLIM lifetime imaging, suitable for live imaging
  • Zeiss LSM980 confocal microscope, suitable for live imaging and autonomous microscopy
  • Revvity Opera Phenix Plus spinning disk confocal with 4 cameras for high-content screening, suitable for live imaging
  • Zeiss Axioscan 7 slide scanner, suitable for brightfield and fluorescence
  • Ramona Optics MCAM Vireo multicamera array microscope, suitable for brightfield or fluorescence-based high-content screening
  • High-end image analysis workstations

The Princess Máxima Imaging Center supports the Center’s research groups and researchers via project collaborations. For external parties interested in accessing the facility, they are encouraged to reach out and contact the center for further information and potential collaboration opportunities

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Facility

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Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are created by reprogramming somatic cells through the forced expression of specific transcription factors. iPSCs possess strong self-renewal capabilities and pluripotency, meaning they can differentiate into virtually any cell type in the human body. As a result, iPSCs represent a valuable and unlimited cell source for in vitro disease modeling, drug screening, and the development of personalized and regenerative medical therapies.

The iPSC facility provides Sendai reprogramming of patient-derived cells to generate high quality iPSC lines. Generated iPSC lines are fully characterized and quality controlled through expression analysis of pluripotency markers, trilineage differentiation, karyotyping, Sendai clearance and mycoplasm testing. We further provide differentiation of iPSCs into various cell types, including fibroblasts, endothelial cells, cardiomyocytes, smooth muscle cells, and other cell types on request. Additionally, we have many years of expertise in generating 3D microtissues for disease modelling using these cells. The facility also provides iPSC culture training and technical support.

Service overview

Generation of iPSC

  • Generation of iPSCs using non-integrating Sendai CytoTune reprogramming
  • Expansion and cryostorage of 3 fully validated clones per line

Characterization and QC

  • Analysis of pluripotency markers (SSEA4, OCT3/4, SOX2, TRA-1-60)
  • Immunofluorescent staining for endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm markers
  • Karyotyping
  • STR cell line identity
  • Sendai clearance (ML-I downscaling)
  • Mycoplasma testing

Differentiation of iPSCs

  • iPSC-cardiomyocytes (including maturation)
  • iPSC-fibroblasts
  • iPSC-endothelial cells
  • Other cell types on request
  • Generation of various 3D microtissues for disease modelling

Training and support

  • Training in iPSC culture and differentiation
  • Training in 3D model generation
  • Support in physiological characterization of iPSC-derived disease models

The team

The iPSC Facility is operated by two iPSC research technicians, supported by a team of experts with expertise in iPSC technology and in vitro disease modelling.

Cellular Screening Technologies

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Cutting-edge pre-clinical human cellular disease models play a critical role in understanding complex biology and developing novel therapeutic strategies across various disease areas. However, translating these bench-scale disease models into trustworthy, standardized models that directly impact patient care requires advanced capabilities. The UMC Utrecht Advanced Technology Platform for Cellular Screening Technologies is designed to provide these crucial next steps: standardization, automated screening, and significantly increased throughput.

Core Services & Capabilities

  • Model Automation: Development of automated human cellular disease models, facilitating the complex transition from bench-scale experimental setups to fully automated workflows.
  • High-Throughput Screening: Advanced microscopy-based medium- to high-throughput cellular screening. This includes comprehensive support for 2D and 3D cultures, high-content analysis, and live-cell imaging.
  • Expert Consultancy: Professional guidance in pre-clinical lab automation, including strategic experimental design to optimize screening outcomes.

Facility Equipment

The facility is currently anchored by “Rosie,” a fully automated platform dedicated to advanced assay automation. Developed in collaboration with the EWUU Centre for Living Technologies, the Rosie platform is housed at the Regenerative Medicine Centre Utrecht (Hubrecht location) and provides state-of-the-art infrastructure for high-throughput automated research. Further expansion of the equipment will follow in the coming years.

This facility will be further expanded at Ombion in the coming years. Visit their page to learn more: Ombion Centre for Animal-free Biomedical Translation.

Utrecht Platform for Organoid Technology

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The Utrecht Platform for Organoid Technology (UPORT) is a central facility within UMC Utrecht that supports researchers in setting up and using living biobanks of healthy and diseased human tissues. These biobanks are typically generated using organoid and induced pluripotent stem cell technologies and support disease modelling, personalized medicine and translational research.

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UPORT provides practical and logistical support throughout the full tissue acquisition process. This includes writing patient inclusion protocols, submitting protocols for ethical review, selecting eligible patients, conducting inclusion interviews, obtaining informed consent and arranging the logistical pathways needed to collect human tissue and associated clinical data.

The facility supports researchers working with different types of patient-derived material, including tumor tissue, healthy tissue, blood, urine, ascites, Pap smears, nasal brushes and other relevant biological samples. UPORT also maintains an annotated living biobank catalogue that helps researchers find and request available organoids, patient-derived biological materials and supplementary clinical or cohort-specific data.

In addition to biobank access and tissue logistics, UPORT offers hands-on support for setting up state-of-the-art organoid culture technologies. The facility can facilitate organoid cell culture training at the Laboratory of Translational Oncology, helping researchers apply organoid technology in their own lab.

UPORT supports both cancer and non-cancer research, including living biobanks for multiple cancer types, airway disease models and intestinal disease models. Researchers can use UPORT services to access fresh human tissue, develop organoid-based disease models, reuse existing biobank materials and connect with expertise in patient-derived model systems.

Services and support

  • Support for cancer, airway and intestinal organoid biobank projects
  • Patient inclusion protocol writing and submission for ethical evaluation
  • Patient selection based on inclusion and exclusion criteria
  • Inclusion interviews and informed consent procedures
  • Logistical coordination for obtaining fresh human tissue and biological samples
  • Collection and management of associated clinical patient data
  • Access to an annotated living biobank catalogue
  • Support in finding and requesting available organoids and patient-derived materials
  • Hands-on support for setting up organoid culture technologies
  • Organoid cell culture training at the Laboratory of Translational Oncology

Netherlands Proteomics Center (NPC)

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Advanced proteomics infrastructure and expertise

The facilities of the Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics group (BioMS) are organized under the name of the Netherlands Proteomics Centre (NPC).

NPC provides academic and industry partners with access to advanced mass spectrometry infrastructure, proteomics technologies and specialist support. Using state-of-the-art mass spectrometry, structural proteomics and computational tools, the facility enables the identification, quantification and structural characterization of proteins, peptides, protein complexes and post-translational modifications.

These technologies can be applied to research questions in areas including cell biology, biotherapeutics, immunology, structural biology, biomarker discovery, drug response and systems biology.

Proteomics technologies and services

NPC offers access to a broad range of proteomics technologies and expertise, including:

  • Quantitative proteomics;
  • Analysis of post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation and glycosylation;
  • Affinity purification mass spectrometry for studying protein interactions;
  • Immune peptidomics and the identification of peptides presented by human leukocyte antigen molecules;
  • Characterization of intact proteins and protein complexes.

Mass spectrometry infrastructure

The facility provides access to 19 mass spectrometers, including 10 instruments equipped for LC-MS/MS proteomics experiments. The infrastructure includes high-resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometry, timsTOF mass spectrometry and triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry.

Together, these instruments support applications ranging from high-throughput proteome analysis and targeted mass spectrometry to data-independent acquisition and lower-throughput structural proteomics experiments.

Sample preparation, data analysis and bioinformatics

Extensive laboratory facilities are available for sample preparation, SDS-PAGE and protein and peptide fractionation. Available techniques include ion-exchange chromatography, high-pH fractionation, size-exclusion chromatography and gel-free fractionation.

Dedicated computational infrastructure supports the storage and analysis of large proteomics datasets. Bioinformatics expertise is available for protein quantification, PTM analysis, data visualization and integration, statistical evaluation, protein structure analysis and network analysis.

Collaboration and access

Projects are tailored to the specific samples and research questions of each user. Support can cover experimental design, sample preparation, measurements, data analysis and interpretation.

Access is offered through a flexible model combining fee-for-service activities with scientific collaboration.

High throughput Screening Facility

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In general, The Prinses Maxima High throughput Screening Facility conduct and support the development, implementation, and analysis of high-throughput and time-consuming assays. All experiments are designed to enable accelerated identification and validation of new treatment options for childhood cancer, as well as the identification of key genes and proteins underlying disease processes.

The highly flexible HTS platform enables the performance of a variety of high-throughput assays (e.g., ELISA, cell viability, staining), screenings with various drug types (e.g., antibodies, siRNAs, or other chemicals), and readout methods (e.g., absorption-, luminescence-, or fluorescence-based detection). Readout using FACS and microscopy can be performed.

What we offer:

We offer a full-service model with:

  • Assay development and validation – We can support the translation of research questions into assays suitable for high-throughput screening and that can be run on our system.
  • Performing HTS experiments – Standard drug screens (see drug libraries) can be performed upon request. Furthermore, if available, we can provide support for in-house developed automated assays.
  • Data analysis support – In addition to the raw data, we also provide standard data analysis reports for these drug screens. We are also working on expanding our support for other experiments.

In practice:

When a research group expresses interest in using HTS equipment within their research project, we organize a meeting with the person in question to discuss goals, feasibility, and mutual expectations. These discussions are formalized using a project intake form, which is requested for each screening experiment.
Once the project requirements are clear, the experiment planning can begin. The researcher can complete the form to express their preferences and requirements for the specific experiment. Each request is followed up by a member of our team to finalize the details and agree on a date for the experiment and any follow-up.

Communication and data delivery

Data is processed using existing pipelines, and the extent to which the HTS facility can support this is discussed in advance.
All data (raw and processed) are delivered to researchers.

Long-Term Data Storage

We typically retain raw and processed data for up to three months after sharing. After this period, we delete the data. The HTS facility is not responsible for long-term data storage.

Collaboration Requests

We will consider collaboration requests based on staff availability. Due to our team’s limited resources, these requests are considered at our discretion.

Equipment Overview

The HTS facility is a sophisticated robotic system containing 20 different laboratory instruments. The HTS team manages this complex system. It is available to all interested parties, although our focus is on facilitating cancer research.

Highlights include:

  • Beckman Coulter Biomek i7 Hybrid Fluid Transfer Workstation.
  • Echo 550 Fluid Handler for acoustic fluid handling for precise nL transfer volumes of (drug) solutions.
  • Revvity Opera Phenix high-content imaging system.
  • Automated version of the most commonly used lab equipment (e.g., incubator, centrifuge, sample heating/cooling, etc.).

Drug Libraries

We currently have the following libraries set up and ready for screening:

  • PMC Core Library: A drug library with over 200 compounds specifically selected for pediatric oncology, based on current treatment regimens and clinical trials. • Immuno-oncology library (Cat. No. L2170)
  • Epigenetic library (Cat. No. HY-L005)
  • Metabolic library (Custom)
  • Cell cycle – DNA damage library (Cat. No. HY-L004)
  • Drug repurposing library (Cat. No. HY-L035)
  • Anticancer metabolism library (Cat. No. HY-L083)