After finishing the bachelor’s and master’s programs Biomedical Sciences at Utrecht university, Rolf joined Applied Stem Cell Technologies as the first PHD candidate of the newly found group in 2015. In the years that followed, focus was given to the development of in vitro models of cardiac health, disease, and toxicity, with human pluripotent stem cell-based cardiomyocytes always at the basis. During the PhD, CRISPR gene editing was used for the development of a reporter cell line, micropatterning was used to study the effect of substrate stiffness on single cell cardiomyocyte contractile properties, differentiation protocols for cardiac pacemakers from human pluripotent stem cells were optimized, and a multi-assay platform for the evaluation of cardiotoxicity was developed.

After the PhD, Rolf stayed on a Postdoctoral researcher at AST to develop the cell model and imaging technology to study cardiac arrhythmias as part of the PREDICT2 consortium. Additionally, Rolf is co-founder of the GreenLabsTwente focus group for sustainability in the labs, and a core member of the GreenLabsNL national group.