1. Johannes Carolus Clevers was born on 27 March 1957 and is a Dutch molecular geneticist, cell biologist and stem cell researcher.
22 Facts About Hans Clevers
1. 2.
Hans Clevers became the Head of Pharma, Research and Early Development, and a member of the Corporate Executive Committee, of the Swiss healthcare company Roche in 2022.
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Hans Clevers is a Professor in Molecular Genetics at Utrecht University.
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Hans Clevers was born in Eindhoven, the Netherlands in 1957.
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Hans Clevers began studying biology at Utrecht University in 1975, but started taking medicine in 1978, in part due to his interest and in part because his friends and brothers were in the medical profession.
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Hans Clevers spent 1 year in Nairobi, Kenya, and half a year at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, United States, for biology rotations.
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Hans Clevers received a Doctoraal in Biology in 1982 and an Artsexamen in 1984.
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Mostly because of his research background, Clevers was selected for a training position in paediatrics, and then went to pursue a PhD in 1985, under the supervision of Rudy Ballieux.
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In 1991, Hans Clevers became a professor and the chair of the Department of Immunology at Utrecht University.
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Hans Clevers moved to the University Medical Center Utrecht in 2002 as a professor in molecular genetics, and started his lab at the Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research.
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In March 2012, Hans Clevers was elected the president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, succeeding Robbert Dijkgraaf.
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Hans Clevers's term concluded in 2015, and he started another lab at the Princess Maxima Center, focusing on childhood cancer, and became the Director Research and Chief Scientific Officer there until 2019.
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Hans Clevers left University Medical Center Utrecht and was appointed Professor in Molecular Genetics at Utrecht University in 2020.
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In 2022, Hans Clevers joined the Swiss healthcare company Roche as its Head of Pharma, Research and Early Development and a member of its Corporate Executive Committee.
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Hans Clevers remains an advisor and guest scientist or visiting researcher to his research groups at the Princess Maxima Center and Hubrecht Institute.
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Since 2017, Hans Clevers is an investigator at the Oncode Institute in Utrecht.
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Hans Clevers has served at a number of scientific organizations, including on the board of directors of the American Association for Cancer Research, and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna and the Francis Crick Institute in London.
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Outside the academia, Hans Clevers has been a scientific advisor to numerous biotechnology companies.
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Hans Clevers co-founded California-based Surrozen in 2016 and Shanghai-based D1 Medical Technology in 2019.
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Hans Clevers's group identified the TCF1 protein, a member of the TCF gene family and a crucial downstream component of the Wnt signaling pathway, making it central in immune responses, embryonic development and tissue repair.
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In 2007, Hans Clevers's group identified a marker for stem cells of the small and large intestines, LGR5, itself a target of the Wnt signaling pathway.
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Hans Clevers's group has applied this technology to culturing organoids from other organs, such as the stomach and liver, as well as from various cancer types, including cancer of the breast and the ovaries.