Lucienne Vonk, PhD, is currently Director Musculoskeletal Diseases at Xintela AB (Sweden) and Senior Researcher at the Department of Orthopaedics, University Medical Center Utrecht (the Netherlands). She received her PhD on tissue engineering of various cartilage tissues in 2010 (Academic Center for Dentistry Amsterdam, VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands), whereafter she joined the department of Orthopaedics at the University Medical Center Utrecht. From 2019 – 2022 she headed the scientific department at CO.DON AG (Germany).
Her research focuses on biological musculoskeletal tissue regeneration, including cell-based therapies and enhancing clinical therapeutic potential via intercellular communication. She is mainly active in translational and clinical research, including phases I/II, III and PIP studies.
She has published numerous scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters and has been invited speaker at many national and international meetings. She collaborated in several research consortia and attracted over 3 million Euro funding for her research.
Dr. Vonk is a (co-)recipient of multiple awards, including the ICRS Young Investigator Award in 2016, Certificate of Merit and Magna Cum Laude award at ICRS world congress 2015 and 2013, star abstract and top six highest ranked abstracts at European Society of Sports Traumatology Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy (ESSKA, 2022), best basic science research (2021, 2015) and top three best basic science research (2020, 2017) by the Netherlands Orthopedic Association (NOV), top three highest ranked and highlighted paper submissions in “arthroscopy and sports medicine” at American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) annual meeting 2016, finalist for the Dick Heinegård Young Investigator award by Matrix Biology Europe in 2014, and the systematic review award by the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) in 2013.
She participated in the prestigious Steyn Parvé program in the Netherlands in 2018 that promotes female talent in scientific leadership. For her teaching, she was selected as best PhD student supervisor of Utrecht University in 2019 and she supervised the Suzanne Hovinga Award winning best Bachelor thesis of Utrecht University in 2020. She was an ICRS scientist travelling fellow in 2015.
Dr. Vonk is Senior & Social Media Associate Editor of the Journal of Cartilage & Joint Preservation. She is currently deputy co-chair of the ICRS Basic Science / Translational Research committee, was program co-chair for the ICRS World Congress in Vancouver (2019) and has been active in several other ICRS committees (Fellowship, Scholarship and Research Grant (2013 – 2015), Basic Science (2015 – 2016), deputy co-chair NextGen (2016 – 2018), Program committee (2018 – 2022)). She is also co-founder and basic science chair of the German National ICRS cartilage club. From 2011 – 2019, she served as Treasurer in the Executive Board of the Dutch Society for Matrix Biology (NVMB) and of the organizing board of Matrix Biology Europe (Federation of European Connective Tissue Societies) meeting 2014 in Rotterdam (the Netherlands).
