Astrid Bakker obtained her PhD on osteocyte mechanobiology with Prof. E.H Burger in 2003. She spent 3 years at the KU Leuven (Belgium) establishing the Bioenginering Unit within the Laboratory of Skeletal Development and Joint Disorders of Prof. F.P.Luyten. She became postdoctoral fellow at the Academic Centre for Dentistry in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) in 2007, and assistant professor in 2009. Her main research interests are mechanobiology of the musculoskeletal apparatus, and regeneration of bone tissue. She is founding member of the Center of Regenerative Medicine, aiming at concentrating tissue engineering-related research within the campus of the VU University Amsterdam, and at enhancing translation of basic research towards the clinic. She has obtained (amongst others) an ECTS Exchange Scholarship Grant in 2001 and the Sijmen Duursma award from the Dutch Osteoporosis Foundation for the best PhD thesis in 2003/’04. She currently has funding from Institut de Recherches Internationales Servier, France