Prof. Dr. Jacques J.M. van Dongen

Research:

I am leading the immune monitoring program of the Department of Immunology), which consists of translational research aiming at unravelling cellular, functional and molecular genetic processes during normal and abnormal immune cell development and maturation, and on the development and clinical evaluation of new diagnostic strategies and techniques in Medical Immunology.

Curriculum Vitae:

I studied Medicine at Erasmus University Rotterdam (Rotterdam, NL) and received my MD degree in 1981. From then on, I worked in the field of immunology research, with special focus on normal, malignant and immunodeficient human T- and B-cell differentiation. I initiated the immunodiagnostic laboratory of the Erasmus university Medical Center Rotterdam (Erasmus MC) in 1985, which has developed into one of the leading centers for immunodiagnostics and translational research of lymphoproliferative diseases and immunodeficiencies in Europe. In 1990 I received my PhD degree (cum laude thesis: “Human T-cell differentiation: Basic aspects and their clinical applications”).

Since 1991 I have been full Professor of Immunology at Erasmus MC-Erasmus University Rotterdam. Major achievements by my team include the development and clinical validation of PCR-based clonality studies, minimal residual disease (MRD) diagnostics, and improved diagnosis of primary immunodeficiencies (PID), and advanced and standardized flow cytometric diagnosis, classification and monitoring of malignancies of immune cells. In Spring 2016, I transferred my immune monitoring team to Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC, Leiden, NL), where I am developing a new translational research program on immune monitoring for diagnosis and disease monitoring, including evaluation of therapy effectiveness. I contributed to ~780 manuscripts and book chapters, including ~500 SCI publications (with ~30,500 citations, ~63 citations per paper and h-index of 90). I am inventor on 20 patent (applications): 14/20 granted; 18/20 licensed.

I am/was coordinator of seven European networks in the field of diagnostics in hemato-oncology and immunology, including 4 EU-supported consortia. Three of these EU-supported consortia obtained long-term sustainability based on revenues from collectively filed and owned patents. I am the founding chairman of these three consortia, EuroClonality (1996-2011), EuroMRD (2001-2016), and EuroFlow (2006-now), which are supported by the European Scientific foundation of Laboratory Hemato-Oncology (ESLHO; http://www.eslho.org/). In 2016 I obtained an ERC-Advanced Grant and a Doctor Honoris Causa at the Silesian University of Medicine in Katowice. In 2018 I received the Berend Houwen Award of the International Society of Laboratory Hematology for innovations in diagnostic flow cytometry.