Hans Clevers facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Hans Clevers
|
|
|---|---|
.jpg)
Clevers in 2018
|
|
| Born |
Johannes Carolus Clevers
27 March 1957 |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Alma mater | Utrecht University |
| Known for | Organoid generation and application |
| Spouse(s) | Eefke Petersen |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Dr A. H. Heineken Prize for Medicine Körber European Science Prize |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Molecular genetics Cell biology |
| Institutions | Roche Princess Máxima Center University Medical Center Utrecht Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research Utrecht University Dana–Farber Cancer Institute |
| Thesis | Early events in lymphocyte activation (1985) |
| Doctoral advisor | Rudy Ballieux |
Johannes (Hans) Carolus Clevers (born March 27, 1957) is a famous Dutch scientist. He studies genes and cells, especially stem cells. These are special cells that can turn into many different types of cells. In 2022, he became a top leader at Roche, a big healthcare company in Switzerland.
Before that, he led research teams at the Hubrecht Institute and the Princess Máxima Center. He still helps these groups as an advisor. He is also a Professor of Molecular Genetics at Utrecht University.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Hans Clevers was born in Eindhoven, Netherlands, in 1957. He started studying biology at Utrecht University in 1975. Later, in 1978, he also began studying medicine. He was interested in medicine, and many of his friends and brothers worked in that field.
He spent time studying in different places, like Nairobi, Kenya, and Bethesda, United States. He earned a degree in Biology in 1982 and a medical degree in 1984. In 1985, he started working on his PhD (a very high research degree) and finished it just one year later.
His Amazing Career
After getting his PhD, Hans Clevers worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the United States. In 1989, he came back to the Netherlands. He joined Utrecht University as an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Immunology.
In 1991, he became a full professor and led the Department of Immunology at Utrecht University. In 2002, he moved to the University Medical Center Utrecht. There, he became a professor in molecular genetics and started his own lab at the Hubrecht Institute. He also became the Director of the Hubrecht Institute.
From 2012 to 2015, Hans Clevers was the president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. After that, he started another lab at the Princess Máxima Center. This lab focused on childhood cancer. He was the Director of Research and Chief Scientific Officer there until 2019.
In 2020, he became a Professor of Molecular Genetics at Utrecht University. In 2022, he joined Roche, a big healthcare company, as a top leader. He still advises his old research groups at the Princess Máxima Center and Hubrecht Institute.
Hans Clevers has also worked with many scientific groups. He has been on the boards of cancer research groups and advised many scientific journals. He also helped start two biotechnology companies: Surrozen in 2016 and D1 Medical Technology in 2019.
What is His Research About?
Early in his career, Hans Clevers studied something called the Wnt signaling pathway. This is like a communication system inside our cells. His group found a protein called TCF1, which is very important in this pathway. It helps with our immune responses, how babies develop before birth, and how our bodies repair themselves.
He became interested in the gastrointestinal tract (our stomach and intestines). He found that another protein, TCF4, is needed to form parts of our intestines. Working with another scientist, he discovered that in colon cancer, problems with certain genes cause TCF proteins to make other genes turn on, which can lead to cancer. This showed a link between the Wnt pathway and colon cancer.
Discovering Stem Cell Markers
In 2007, Clevers's team found a special marker for stem cells in the small and large intestines. This marker is called LGR5. They found that LGR5 is also a stem cell marker in other parts of the body, like the stomach and hair follicles. This was a very important discovery!
Growing Organoids
Building on this, in 2009, his group made a huge breakthrough. They showed how to grow tiny, 3D structures called organoids from adult stem cells. These organoids are like mini-organs that act and look like real organs. They first made organoids of the small intestine.
Since then, Clevers's group has used this method to grow organoids from other organs, like the stomach and liver. They have also grown organoids from different types of cancer, such as breast and ovarian cancer.
This amazing technology helps doctors test medicines. They can grow organoids from a patient's own cells and then test different drugs on them. This helps find the best treatment for that specific patient. It's used for cancer and other diseases like cystic fibrosis. Hans Clevers is very interested in using organoids to learn more about how our bodies grow and how cancer develops.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Clevers's group even used lung organoids to study how the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects cells.
Honours and Awards
Hans Clevers has received many important awards for his scientific work:
- Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (1999)
- Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2000)
- Spinoza Prize (2001)
- Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (2004)
- Knight of the Legion of Honour (2005)
- Meyenburg Prize (2008)
- Member of Academia Europaea (2009)
- United European Gastroenterology Federation Research Prize (2010)
- Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine (2011)
- International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2012)
- William Beaumont Prize (2012)
- Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Medicine (2012)
- Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion (2012)
- Member of Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (2012)
- Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2013)
- International Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2014)
- Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy
- Foreign Associate of the French Academy of Sciences (2015)
- Pour le Mérite (2016)
- Körber European Science Prize (2016)
- Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2018)
- Foreign Member of the Royal Society (2019)
- Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2019)
- Keio Medical Science Prize (2019)
- The Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research (2021)
