Distinguished Lecturer Seminar Series - Thijn Brummelkamp "Genetics in Human Cells to identify ‘Alternative Pathways"

Thijn Brummelkamp is Director of Research at the Netherlands Cancer Institute with a research interest in the fields of cell and cancer biology. He is known for pioneering technologies such as short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) and the development of haploid human cells as a genetic model system. Brummelkamp studied biology at the Free University of Amsterdam and conducted his Ph.D. research at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, earning his doctorate from Utrecht University. He then joined the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, USA, as a Whitehead Fellow, where he established his independent research laboratory. In 2011, he returned to the Netherlands Cancer Institute as a group leader and co-founded the biotech companies Haplogen and Scenic Biotech. He currently holds appointments as a group leader at the Oncode Institute and as Professor of Experimental Genetics at Utrecht University. Brummelkamp was named one of MIT Technology Review’s Top 35 Innovators Under 35 in 2005, received the Kimmel Scholar Award in 2006, and was awarded the EMBO Gold Medal in 2013. Brummelkamp is also a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)