Grijze Cellen: DNA

2015 marks exactly 15 years since the billion-dollar Human Genome Project presented the first rough version of our DNA. The promise at the time was that the unraveling of human DNA would lead to miraculous treatments and revolutionary insights. But have those high expectations actually been met? What can we expect in the future? Two top scientists give a lecture and then discuss each other.

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THE SPEAKERS

Gert Matthijs (1963) is a molecular geneticist. He graduated as a pharmacist in 1985 and obtained a doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences in 1989. After his PhD, he specialized in molecular biology and genetics at the Center for Human Genetics of the University Hospital Leuven. Since 1994, his research has focused on the genetic diagnosis of congenital genetic diseases. Gert Matthijs is currently extraordinary professor and head of the Laboratory for Molecular Diagnostics of the Center for Human Genetics at UZ Leuven. In his position he is very involved in the social and ethical aspects of genetic research, as explained in the book What about genetics? (2013) that analyzes the different aspects of the total genome analysis. Together with bioethicist Pascal Borry, he published Alles GENiaal (2014), which explains human genetics in an accessible way.

Edwin Cuppen (1970) studied molecular life sciences at Wageningen University and in 1999 he obtained his PhD from Radboud University in Nijmegen. Since 2009, he has worked as a professor of human genetics at the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU), where he conducts research into the properties and causes of cancer and advises on appropriate treatments. He is also a researcher at the Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research of the KNAW, where he specializes in the field of genome research in relation to stem cell biology and cancer. Edwin Cuppen is also the founder of the Center for Personalized Cancer Treatment (CPCT). The CPCT aims to optimize cancer treatment and prevent inefficient treatments by offering each patient personalized cancer treatment based on the genetic characteristics of the patient's tumor.