Dr Monika Gladka is currently an Assistant Professor at University Medical Center in Amsterdam. Her current research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate cardiac repair, intending to identify new players to develop novel, improved gene therapies. She uses several state-of-the-art techniques such as single-cell sequencing, enabling an in-depth mechanistic understanding of the biological processes in injured cardiomyocytes. She is a member of the Young@Heart board from the Netherlands Heart Institute, a nationalteam of mid-career tesearchers focussed on promoting and supporting bacic cardiovascular science among young members by contributing to educational and advocacy activities  and reaching out to trainees, PhD student, young researchers, and clinical scientists. She is a Nucleus Member of the ESC Cardiovascular Regenerative and Reparative Medicine (CARE) Working Group (WG) with a mission to create an European network to stimulate research and development of regenerative and reperative products to match the unmet needs of cardiovascular diseases. She was also elected to the International Society of Heart Research (ISHR) Council with the mission to promote the discovery and dissemination of knowledge in cardiovascular sciences globally.