Hans Clevers, director of the Hubrecht Institute, will receive the Meyenburg Award from the German Cancer Research Center on Thursday. Clevers receives the award for his groundbreaking research on the development of intestinal cancer. An amount of 50,000 Euros is allocated with the award. Clevers already received the Josephine Nefkens Award for Cancer Research at the end of last month. The Hubrecht Institute and UMC Utrecht have been collaborating since the beginning of this year.
The annual Meyenburg Award has been awarded to Professor Hans Clevers for his research on the development of intestinal cancer. Among the things he discovered is that the normal replenishment of intestinal tissue and the development of intestinal cancer are very similar to each other. He describes the disruption by cancer of the molecular signal routes, such as the Wnt route. He recently discovered a protein, Lgr5, which is specific to stem cells in the intestine. Understanding the development of cancer is crucial to the development of new treatment methods. Among the previous winners of the Meyenburg Award are the very best scientists within the cancer research community.
On November 28, Clevers also received the Josephine Nefkens Award for his cancer research. In its report, the jury wrote, “Hans Clevers has truly performed groundbreaking work over a long series of years in the area of signal transduction failure in cancer. He has provided essential contributions that have led to a better understanding of the processes that play a significant part in the transformation of intestinal cells into malignant colon tumors.”
The Josephine Nefkens Award for Cancer Research is awarded once every three years to an active scientist who has performed excellent cancer research in the Dutch-speaking world, regardless of the scientist’s nationality. An amount of 50,000 Euros is allocated with the award.
Clevers was professor of immunology at Utrecht University between 1991 and 2002. He has been professor of molecular genetics and director of the Hubrecht Institute since 2002. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and he received the Spinoza Award from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) in 2001.