Killer Windmill • @1MEMO 20250216

The story of my great-great grandmother killed by the spinning sails of her windmill , the Middle Mill in Stompwijk, Holland.

My great-great grandmother, Petronella van Dorp, was killed June 9, 1881, by the Middle Mill of these Three Windmills of Stompwijk. A row of windmills built in 1672 to drain water out of the Driemans polder in Stompwijk, Holland.

She was feeding the chickens, when the wind turned the windmill sails that grabbed her skirts and killed her, on June 9, 1881.

She was a miller’s wife — a widow at the time — of Leendert (Leonardus) van der Burg, my great-great grandfather.
Her eldest son Albert (my great-grandfather), a water miller too, and a former Papal Zouave (see below), reported her death the next day at the village town hall in Stompwijk.

Albert must have lost his Dutch citizenship after he had taken up ‘military service with a foreign power’, as a 16 year old boy, joining the Papal Zouaves from February 5, 1868 until 1870.
That might have had consequences for work as a water miller. He married in 1883 and appears to have lived a few years in Vlaardingen (near Rotterdam) – where my grandfather Machiel was born – before returning to Stompwijk with his wife Johanna van der Togt.

Albert’s brother, Pieter van der Burg, married May 8, 1882 with Magdalena de Bruin — a year after the fatal accident of his mother — and was a water miller on this Middle Mill (Middelmolen) in the Driemans polder in Stompwijk until 1892.

Notes

Death Petronella van Dorp. Municipal archive The Hague in Den Haag (Netherlands), Civil registration deaths
Ambachten en gemeenten Leidschendam (1812-1817), Stompwijk en Veur, Stompwijk, archive 5270-01, inventory number 910, 10-06-1881, Overlijdensakten Stompwijk, record number 1881-29 . Permalink https://hdl.handle.net/21.12124/01783BA8766C46A0A57A16DB227ABC38

Open Archives URL https://www.openarchieven.nl/hga:01783BA8-766C-46A0-A57A-16DB227ABC38

Middenmolen (van de Driemanspolder). Molen Database Ten Bruggencate-nr. 00966 . URL https://www.molendatabase.nl/molens/ten-bruggencate-nr-00966?paging=true

Pieter van der Burg . Zoetermeer City Archive URL https://zoeken.geheugenvanzoetermeer.nl/detail.php?nav_id=1-6&id=14010664

Papal Zouave • 1-memo•com • 20220313 • URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2022/03/13/papal-zouave/

Great-great-great grandfather ‘Pieter’ van der Burg was a water-miller too, 200 years ago . https://michelvanderburg.com/2014/08/21/water-windmiller-pieter-van-der-burg/

Video recorded January-February 2022.

Citation info : Killer Windmill • Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media • @1MEMO 20250216 • TakeNode 03fa6ccb-3254-411c-9922-240eb28e7509

Optiprep For Human Islet Purification • Cell Transplant Society 1999 • @1MEMO 20250203

Optiprep For Human Islet Purification • Cell Transplant Society 1999 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250203 • TakeNode bad757b8-674c-4371-938c-ac73287bc457

Poster (#57) presentation Michel van der Burg, Cell Transplant Society congress 1999 in Montreux, Switzerland (1,2)

Outcome of the first series of human islet purifications with the novel Iodixanol -UWS density gradient — developed in the Leiden Islet Laboratory of the LUMC — performed during my working visit April – May 1998 at the “fast track” center of the Diabetes Research Institute (Scientific director Prof. C. Ricordi, MD) of the University of Miami (Miami, FL, USA).

Notes

1) Van der Burg MPM, Ranuncoli A, Molano R, Kirlew T, Ringers J, Bouwman E, Terpstra OT, Ricordi C. Optiprep for human islet purification. 4th International congress of the Cell Transplant Society, Montreux (Switzerland) March 21–24, 1999 .

2) Van der Burg MPM, Ranuncoli A, Molano R, Kirlew T, Ringers J, Bouwman E, Terpstra OT, Ricordi C. Optiprep for human islet purification (Abstract). Cell Transplant 1999; 8: 184. Download abstract below 1MEMO_20250202_3

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Citation info : Optiprep For Human Islet Purification • Cell Transplant Society 1999 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250203 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/02/03/

Iodixanol-UWS Purification and Culture of Pig Islets Xeno Transplants • Cell Transplant Society 1999 • @1MEMO 20250202

Iodixanol-UWS Purification and Culture of Pig Islets Xeno Transplants • Cell Transplant Society 1999 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250202

Slideshow (digitally remastered) oral presentation Michel van der Burg, Cell Transplant Society congress 1999 in Montreux, Switzerland (1)

The Leiden Islet Laboratory developed a novel Iodixanol-UWS density gradient for purification of the islets of Langerhans from the pancreas in the difficult pig model.

Pig islet isolation from the pancreas of slaughterhouse sows was markedly improved by keeping the islets in the UW donor organ preservation solution (UWS) both during the isolation of islets (using the Liberase enzyme blend) and purification of the islets using our novel Iodixanol-UWS density gradient.

Xeno transplantation of these 1-day-cultured pig islets restored normal blood sugar levels in diabetic mice.

PDF slideshow oral presentation Michel van der Burg, Cell Transplant Society congress 1999 in Montreux, Switzerland

Iodixanol-UWS Purification and Culture of Pig Islets Xeno Transplants • Cell Transplant Society 1999 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250202_2 • TakeNode 8bd79256-78b2-4d8e-8d48-6da41102dc2d • Download file available below 1MEMO_20250202_2

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Notes

1) Van der Burg MPM, Rijkelijkhuizen JKRA, Zwaan RP, Bouwman E. Adult pig islet recovery during Liberase isolation, OptiPrep purification and culture for transplantation in nude mice. 4th International congress of the Cell Transplant Society, Montreux (Switzerland) March 21–24, 1999 .

2) Van der Burg MPM, Rijkelijkhuizen JKRA, Zwaan RP, Bouwman E. Adult pig islet recovery during Liberase isolation, OptiPrep purification and culture for transplantation in nude mice (Abstract). Cell Transplant 1999; 8: 185. Download abstract, available below 1MEMO_20250202_3

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Citation info : Iodixanol-UWS Purification and Culture of Pig Islets Xeno Transplants • Cell Transplant Society 1999 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250202 • TakeNode f9d1fdc5-21e4-4932-b995-4c97639945fe • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/02/02/

Fresh vs Cultured Pig Islets for Xenografts • NTV Bootcongres 1998 • @1MEMO 20250201

Fresh vs Cultured Pig Islets for Xenografts • NTV Bootcongres 1998 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250201_1 • TakeNode 71d39e7e-ab5e-42b6-8cf2-a17d464ce132

Van der Burg MPM, Rijkelijkhuizen JKRA, Zwaan RP, Bouwman E. Culture of isolated pig islets pre-xenotransplantation greatly improves the quality and survival of the graft (Kweek van geïsoleerde varkenseilandjes pre-xenotransplantatie verbetert aanzienlijk de kwaliteit en overleving van het transplantaat). Tenth Congress of the Dutch Transplantation Society (Bootcongres 1998), Kerkrade (The Netherlands) April 21–23, 1998.

Download (pdf) NTV bulletin (abstract) & poster , file 1MEMO_20250201

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EN – Abstract

PRE-TRANSPLANT SHORT-TERM CULTURE OF ISOLATED PIG ISLETS MARKEDLY IMPROVES THE QUALITY AND SURVIVAL OF THE XENOGRAFT
Van der Burg MPM,* Rijkelijkhuizen JKRA, Zwaan RP, and Bouwman E, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Pre-transplant culture of isolated islets reduces the graft’s immunogenicity in various models. Little is known, however, on the effect of culture in pig islet xenotransplantation — probably, because porcine islets have been found difficult to culture. Because pilot transplants of freshly-isolated pig islets in strongly immunosuppressed rats resulted in primary non function, we first studied 1-7 day culture of the isolated pig islets at 37°C in RPMI plus 10% porcine serum. Islets were isolated from large sows (n =6) by an improved method, resulting in intact islets (size 185±16 µm) and no loss during purification, yielding 2448 islets (IEQs)/g with a >95% purity and 90±2% viability as assessed by acridine orange – propidium iodide (AOPI) staining. During culture, however, islet recovery was 24±9% at day 1 and 17±6% at day 7 (NS vs day 1). In order to delineate whether the culture conditions or the quality of freshly isolated islets caused the islet loss during culture, we compared graft survival in nude mice at 1 mo after transplantation under the kidney capsule of ~2500 fresh islets in normoglycemic recipients or ~1000 cultured islets in STZ-diabetic (>20 mM) recipients. After transplanting fresh islets, histology of the kidneys — sectioned every 500 µm — demonstrated substantial scarring and (near-)absence of islets. Cultured islet transplants, by contrast, rendered 5/6 recipients normoglycemic, and showed a substantial mass of well-preserved islets with little scarring at the grafts’ site. Thus, viability by AOPI-staining of fresh islets poorly predicts the survival in vivo and in vitro. A non-immune mediated disintegration of part of the fresh islets may substantially reduce the functional capacity of the graft, both direct by lowering the effective islet dose, and indirect first because scarring may hamper the engraftment of viable tissue, and second because the cellular debris most probably will attract macrophages and induce the release of harmful cytokines.

Citation info : Fresh vs Cultured Pig Islets for Xenografts • NTV Bootcongres 1998 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250201 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/02/01/

Leiden Islet Isolation Chamber • @1MEMO 20250116

Leiden Islet Isolation Chamber • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250116 • TakeNode 398303fe-928a-4c53-839e-9dde0e7d8ec6

Following a working visit February ’92 studying pig islet isolation at the ‘Fondation Transplantation’ in Strasbourg -Hautepierre, France (1) , I designed this islet isolation chamber March 1992 for use in our Leiden Islet Laboratory , together with Gerard Verschagen , head of the precision mechanics workshop of the Laboratory of Physiology of the University Hospital Leiden (AZL , now LUMC), who manufactured this and other of our islet isolation devices.

The chamber was designed with support for use together with the Retsch Vibro Sieving Machine , purchased earlier for our Leiden Islet Laboratory, a vibrating sieving machine I had used in the 70s for isolation cell nuclei (2). The design was based on the Ricordi chamber published 4 years earlier (3).

The drawing was originally designed and produced on a Macintosh computer March 1992, using the MacDraw II application. That Mac file was remastered today in LibreOffice Vanilla, by straightening most of the lines that are slanted after opening in LibreOffice and correcting the font changes. So , not accurate now probably … just for illustration the history of progress in our Leiden Islet Laboratory, and love for art 😉

Notes

1) Xeno Islets • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250113 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/13/

2) Mennes AM, Bouman H, Van der Burg MPM, Libbenga KR. RNA synthesis in isolated tobacco callus nuclei, and the influence of phytohormones. Plant Sci Lett 1978; 13: 329– 339, ISSN 0304-4211, https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-4211(78)90210-9.

3) Piemonti L, Pileggi A. 25 Years Of The Ricordi Automated Method For Islet Isolation. CellR4 Repair Replace Regen Reprogram. 2013;1(1):e128. PMID: 30505878; PMCID: PMC6267808. URL https://www.cellr4.org/article/128

Citation info : Leiden Islet Isolation Chamber • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250116 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/16/

Pancreatic Islets UWS Series 1989 • Kodak PhotoCD • @1MEMO 20250103

4th ESOT Slide #19 • Pancreatic Islets UWS Series 1989 • Kodak PhotoCD • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20250103_1 • TakeNode eeb55729-c02b-4f73-ab0e-9f71b65bf85e

Slide #19 of talk by Michel van der Burg at the 4th ESOT congress in Barcelona (Spain) Nov 1989 on the paper ‘Pancreatic Islet Isolation With UW Solution • A New Concept’ (1,2). Details of this talk were posted recently (2) with a scan of a paper print of slide #19 – slighly cropped with printing.
Here the full image of the original slide, scanned by Kodak PhotoCD in 1994, with minor color correction added (20250103_1) in this post.

This ‘Slide #19’ shows the final dithizone stained sample of the UW-isolated islets after dextran density gradient purification — a micrograph made April 18, 1989 , the second islet isolation experiment performed using the UW-Solution as the isolation solution.

In the lab journal of the first isolation experiment with UW-Solution, Wednesday April 12th 1989, I noted on the final purified islet preparation : ‘handpicking for encapsulation was not necessary: preparation more than 90% pure ( translated from dutch : “handpicken voor inkapseling was niet nodig: preparaat meer dan 90% zuiver”)’.

‘Handpicking’ of islets had been done at the start of our islet lab in 1985-1987 for counting rodent islets in cell culture dishes, and monitoring islet insulin secretion in tubes (3). Soon, ‘handpicking’ was no longer needed , when monitoring the insulin secretion of isolated islets in perifusion chambers (4,5). However, the handpicking method was used again in a pilot study on encapsulation of islets in 1989 by medical student Joost Clemens (6). Joost had just started on this research project, and was assisting me with islet ‘counting’ (yield and purity assessment) in the ‘duplo’ samples from this first series of UWS isolations.

Handpicking Pancreatic Islets • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20250103_2 • TakeNode 7988ce39-6777-4db3-82c5-8191acdb13d6

Macro photography (Photo paper print, September 1987, AVC, Leiden University) of the aspiration of isolated canine pancreatic islets, in a suspension still contaminated with exocrine pancreatic fragments, at the tip of a hand blown glass handpicking pipette (custom made at the Leiden University) collected and transferred into tubes for monitoring insulin secretion the first year of pilot work in the Leiden islet laboratory (4).

Notes

1) Pancreatic Islet Isolation With UW Solution • A New Concept • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20241224 • URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2024/12/24/pancreatic-islet-isolation-with-uw-solution-a-new-concept-20241224/

2) Pancreatic Islet Isolation in UW Solution & Transplantation • ESOT 1989 Talk • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20241229 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2024/12/29/

3) Lucky #1 Islet • 20240811 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com

4) Cradle of Islet Transplants • 20240829 • Michel van der Burg • michelvanderburg•com

5) Monitoring pancreatic islets in perifusion • 20240911 | Michel van der Burg | michelvanderburg•com

6) Joost A.M. Clemens (MSc student in Medicine) at the Department of Biomaterials (Prof. dr K. de Groot) and Department of Surgery of the Leiden University (Michel van der Burg , Hein Gooszen). Pilot study of the encapsulation of dog islets using the alginate polylysine and poly-HEMA-phospate method (1989).
At that time , both the Biomaterials department and the Islet Lab of the Surgery department were housed in the building of the Cell Biology department of the Leiden University Hospital (AZL, now LUMC). Below a portrait snapshot I took of Klaas de Groot at a Garden party organized in 1989 by the Department of Cell Biology, Leiden University.

Klaas de Groot, Biomaterials Department of the Leiden University in 1989. Photo by Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20250103_3 • TakeNode c25a87b7-09a4-49ce-8c42-14142da1e066

Citation info : Pancreatic Islets UWS Series 1989 • Kodak PhotoCD • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250103 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/03/

Pancreatic Islet Isolation in UW Solution & Transplantation • ESOT 1989 Talk • @1MEMO 20241229

Oral Presentation Slide 19 ~ Pure Islets Isolated in UW Solution • Miracles.Media • 20241229_1 • TakeNode ce420e5a-1df7-4e4f-bcb6-6831434ffac7

In November 1989, I had my first chance for a presentation at a major international conference, the 4th ESOT meeting in Barcelona, of a paper centered on the rationale for employing the University of Wisconsin (UW) organ preservation solution in pancreatic islet isolation.

Venue 4th Congress of the European Society for Organ Transplantation, Barcelona (Spain) November 1–4, 1989 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20241224 • TakeNode 103c4c3c-5d36-4111-a5f8-f60e81c5db4d

This innovative islet isolation work with the UW-Solution had been accepted as a poster presentation for the 4th ESOT meeting (1).
I also took the opportunity to present this new work during a talk on previous isolation work (2,3) at this conference.

Barcelona Nov 1989 4th ESOT • Talk by Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20241229_2 • Photo : Grup Jaume Muntaner (Barcelona) • TakeNode 96957e2f-1462-48e1-aca1-4745198d9a54

‘Behind the scenes’ I had first remade my lost poster at the congress venue (1), and then I rewrote my speech in the hotel room on the older research (2) updated with the more recent work with the UW-Solution, and including the outcome of our first islet transplantations.

Barcelona 89 • Handout 4th ESOT Talk

Below a scan of that handout of the final speech, written out at full lenght in a notepad from a recent working visit in Minneapolis (4).

Barcelona 89 • Handout 4th ESOT Talk • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20241229_3 • TakeNode f8595a82-fba5-4a89-a01f-4c37976d06d7 • PDF FILE 20241229_3 copy is available here

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Handout Page 1 • 20241229_3 • Miracles.Media

Speech Excerpts

…

( finishing speech first part on our previous islet isolation methods using the conventional RPMI solution – a solution originally designed for tissue culture, not for cold storage of organs )

Slide 18

This slide shows one of the purest preparations obtained, with an estimated purity of 65% islets.
• On the average however a purity of only 30% was obtained.

Recently we adopted an entirely new approach to islet isolation.
• Since UW, the new organ cold storage solution has been shown to allow long-term cold storage of the canine pancreas;
• and, since islet isolation too is largely performed in the cold;
• we tested this preservation solution as the isolation medium, throughout the isolation procedure in another 6 dogs;
• as compared to the commonly used solutions like RPMI tissue culture medium.

Slide 19

This slide shows the final dithizone stained preparation after dextran purification of UW-isolated islets.
• UW did not affect islet yield
• however, UW markedly improved purity :
• acinar tissue is virtually absent.

…

Notes

2) Van der Burg MPM, Gooszen HG, Field MJ, Scherft JP, Terpstra JL, Van de Woude FT, Guicherit OR, Frölich M, Bruijn JA. Comparison of current islet isolation techniques in dogs. 4th Congress of the European Society for Organ Transplantation, Barcelona (Spain) November 1–4, 1989. Oral presentation. (1)

3) Van der Burg MPM, Gooszen HG, Field MJ, Scherft JP, Terpstra JL, van de Woude FJ, Guicherit OR, Frölich M, Bruijn JA. Comparison of current islet isolation techniques in dogs. Transplant Proc. 1990 Aug;22(4):2044-5. PMID: 1697121.
This paper appears to be not readily available online – a reprint copy is available at this site (1)

4) Working visit Sep – Oct 1989, joining the pancreatic islet isolation team of the pioneer transplant surgeon David Sutherland at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Citation info : Pancreatic Islet Isolation in UW Solution & Transplantation • ESOT 1989 Talk • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20241229 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2024/12/29/