Patrick Derksen (1970) obtained his PhD at the department of Pathology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Here, he studied the contribution of HGF/MET and canonical WNT signaling to myeloma growth and survival both biochemically and functionally. He also substantiated a functional role for heparan sulfate proteoglycans in myeloma by demonstrating that HGF binding to Syndecan-1 strongly promotes HGF-induced responses.
Following his graduation in 2003, he moved to the Jonkers laboratory at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to study the role of the cadherin/catenin complex in breast cancer progression and metastasis. To this end, he developed two mouse models for human ILC, by tissue-specific knockout of E-cadherin and p53. Based on the findings within this project, he was awarded an independent researcher grant from the Dutch organization for scientific research (NWO-VENI) in 2005.
In 2007, he joined the Medical Oncology department as an independent researcher. Here, he also initiated the formation of the UMCU Mouse Cancer Clinic. He received a NWO-VIDI award in 2008. Now, Patrick Derksen is an Associate Professor at the Department of Pathology. His group is aiming at combining expertise on adhesion molecules, cell signaling and state of the art mouse models to study the downstream effectors of the adherens junction complex that propel breast cancer development and progression.
Research in the Derksen laboratory is currently sponsored by the UMCU Cancer Center and grants from NWO and Pink Ribbon.