Dr Marlies Reinders is a Nephrologist and has long experience working on alloimmunity and renal transplantation. She performed research focused on leukocyte-endothelial cell biology in transplantation at the Transplant Immunology Laboratory, Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston in collaboration with Prof Briscoe. Dr Reinders is member of STELLAR, an EU financed research consortium interested in developing an alternative to renal replacement therapy using stem cell based therapy for kidney repair. In addition, she is principal investigator of clinical trials of MSC treatment in transplant recipients. Besides the clinical research, dr Reinders is involved in the organization of the new curriculum of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Leiden and in the integration of novel forms of education in transplant medicine for (under)graduate students and professionals. The scientific background in transplant medicine and the experience by running two clinical trials on MSCs sets the base for integration of scientific innovation with education.