Dirk-Jan is currently finishing his PhD at the University of Strathclyde at the department of Biomedical Engineering under supervision of Prof. Will Shu. His research involves developing an encapsulation method for cells and organoids, to be used for transplantation and drug testing purposes. He focused on encapsulating pancreatic islets for transplantation in patients with diabetes type I. Previously, Dirk-Jan studied Biomedical Engineering at the University of Twente.