Van Oudenaarden new co-director Hubrecht Institute

Appointment
The Hubrecht Institute is one of the KNAW´s 19 research institutes and is affiliated to University Medical Center Utrecht. Van Oudenaarden´s arrival gives the stem cell research a considerable boost, thereby consolidating the institute’s position as a world leader in stem cell research for cancer and regenerative medicine. Van Oudenaarden will join Hans Clevers as co-director the institute and will start his new job on 1 January 2012. As general director, Clevers will continue to bear overall responsibility for the institute.

Stem cell research
Alexander van Oudenaarden´s group wants to understand in quantitative terms how cells use networks of genes and proteins to take decisions. For example, how does a stem cell decide to become an intestinal cell and not a muscle cell? And how can changes in the networks of genes ultimately change a healthy cell into a cancer cell? His group seeks to answer such questions using a combination of theoretical and experimental techniques that measure and predict the activities of genes and proteins at the cellular level and sometimes at the molecular level as well. 

About the Hubrecht Institute
The Hubrecht Institute carries out research on the developmental biology of animals with a strong focus on stem cells. In conjunction with this fundamental research, strategic biomedical and genomic research is also performed. The research programme is unique in the world because it covers the entire developmental biology of animals from fertilisation to the adult organism.