Prof. Dr. René Bernards, Ph.d

Biography

 is the Head of Molecular Carcinogenesis division at the Netherlands Kanker Instituut, which he joined in 1992 after a six-year Assistant Professorship at Harvard University. Prof. Dr. Bernards is a part-time Professor of Molecular Carcinogenesis at Utrecht University (The Netherlands) since 1994. His laboratory focuses on the development of new tools to perform genome-wide genetic screens to identify novel genes that act in cancer relevant pathways. Prof. Dr. Bernards was a Co-Founder of TopoTarget in 1993 (Formerly Prolifix). He served as Member of Advisory Board at Gilde Investment Management. His scientific accomplishments include the development of MammaPrint, the first clinically-used gene expression profile for breast cancer. His laboratory also developed the first shRNA vector for gene silencing in mammalian cells and used this vector to create the first genome-scale library of shRNA vectors. His laboratory has used this vector collection to identify biomarkers of response to cancer drugs and to identify particularly powerful drug combinations for the treatment of cancer, based on the concept of synthetic lethality. There are four clinical trials that test the efficacy of combination therapies suggested by his genetic screens: NCT01719380; NCT01750918; NCT01791309 and NCT02039336. Prof. Dr. Bernards received several awards for his research, including the Pezcoller Foundation-FECS Recognition for Contribution to Oncology, the Ernst W. Bertner Award for Cancer Research from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the ESMO Lifetime Achievement Award in Translational Research in Breast Cancer, the Spinoza award from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research and the Queen Wilhelmina Research Prize from the Dutch Cancer Society. He is also a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and received the Academy Professor Prize from this organization in 2013. In 1992, Prof. Dr. Bernards was appointed as a Senior Staff Scientist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, where he studies mammalian cancer genetics. He is the NWO Spinoza-award winner 2005. Prof. Dr. Bernards has extensive experience in oncology as a researcher and entrepreneur. He has a 25-year track record in oncology research (more than 100 papers published in peer-reviewed journals) and has initiated and developed numerous fruitful collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry. Prof. Dr. Bernards performed his post-doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Robert Weinberg’s group at the Whitehead Institute. He joined Harvard University as an Assistant Professor in 1988 to study function of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. Prof. Dr. Bernards received his Ph.D. in 1984 from the University of Leiden.

Research Interest

 molecular oncology