René H. Medema (1964) obtained a degree in Chemistry from the University of Leiden in 1989. He then started his PhD training under supervision of Prof. Dr. J.L. Bos, first in the Department of Medical Biology of the Sylvius Laboratory in Leiden, headed by Prof. Dr. A.J. van der Eb. His PhD work was dedicated at understanding the regulation of the p21ras proto-oncogene by mitogenic factors. In 1991, he moved with Prof. J.L. Bos to the University of Utrecht at the Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry, headed by Prof. Dr. P.C. van der Vliet. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Utrecht in 1993 with a thesis entitled “The role of p21ras in insulin signal transduction”.
Following his PhD he joined the laboratory of Prof. Dr. R.A. Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research on a Fellowship obtained from the Dutch Cancer Society. Here he worked on cell cycle regulation by cdk-inhibitors, most notably p16ink4a. In July 1995, he was appointed as Assistant Professor in the group of Dr. G. Rijksen at the Department of Hematology, headed by Prof. Dr. J.J. Sixma and Prof. Dr. A. Hagenbeek. Here he started his own independent research lines aimed at a better understanding of cell cycle regulation of the mammalian cell cycle. Since then his group has been interested in cell cycle checkpoints that control cell division, and the transcriptional networks underlying timed expression of cell cycle-regulated genes.
In 2001, his group moved to the Netherlands Cancer Institute, headed by Prof. Dr. A. Berns. While the focus of research remained on cell cycle checkpoints and cell cycle-regulated transcription, the expertise on RNAi and cell imaging present at the Institute, allowed the group to develop the necessary cell-based assays to proceed in this area of research.
In 2004, he was awarded with a VICI vernieuwingsimpuls from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, to further develop his work on the mitotic checkpoint. In 2005, he became Professor of Experimental Oncology in the Department of Medical Oncology, at the University of Utrecht. In 2007 he was elected as member of the European Molecular Biology Organization. He is Associate Editor for BBA reviews in Cancer and EMBO reports, and member of the National Advisory Board of the National Cancer Institute. Since 2008 he is a participant of the Cancer Genomics Center, part of the Netherlands Genomics Initiative.
He is currently head of the Laboratory of Experimental Oncology, part of the Genomics Center Utrecht. More information on his current research projects can be found elsewhere on this site.