Willem Mulder specialises in nanomedicine, applying it in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The application is twofold. Disease processes can be identified more specifically and at an earlier stage at the molecular level using nanotechnology. It also provides a treatment platform for tracing diseases and local treatment without damaging healthy tissue.

Mulder leads a research group in New York. In preclinical studies conducted in New York, he has demonstrated that the harmful inflammation of the blood vessel walls in animal models of atherosclerosis can be diagnosed and treated using nanotechnology in a unique manner. At the AMC, Mulder is working on the transition from research to clinical practice and is involved in the first nanotherapeutic trials in patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases. He is developing new conceptual protocols which provide greater insight into the disease processes.

Mulder is attached to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinair (New York, USA) as head of the Nanomedicine Laboratory. He has been working for the AMC-UvA Experimental Vascular Medicine department since 2012. Mulder has received several research grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to develop nanotechnology for vascular diseases and oncology. The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) recently awarded him a Vidi grant. Mulder has authored over 80 scientific articles, published in authoritative academic journals, such as Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Nano Letters, Nature Nanotechnology and ACS Nano.