Heinz Jacobs

Biography

Heinz Jacobs studied Biomedical Sciences (Human Biology) at the Philipps University in Marburg, Germany. Studies reported in his master thesis 'Molecular and Biochemical Characterization of the Feline MHC', were preformed in the division of Cellular Biochemistry at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam under the supervision of Hidde Ploegh. He received his PhD from the University of Amsterdam where he studied 'T Cell Development in TCR Mutant Mice' in the laboratory of Anton Berns. In 1994 he was awarded an EMBO longterm post-doc fellowship to work on 'The Molecular Mechanism Underlying Somatic Hypermutation' and joined the group of Klaus Rajewsky at the Institute for Genetics in Cologne, Germany. Here, he characterized the role of transcription and DNA repair in somatic hypermutation of immunoglobulin genes. In 1996 the applicant was offered an independent group leader position at the Basel Institute for Immunology, Basel, Switzerland. During this period the applicants group discovered that DNA strand breaks are frequent in variable region of immunoglobulin genes undergoing somatic hypermutation. In addition, two independent approaches were established to identify genes controlling normal and malignant lymphocyte development. In 2002 he was appointed senior staff scientist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute where he studies 'Programmed mutagenesis, DNA damage tolerance and their relation to the somatic evolution of cancer'. In 2004 the applicant was awarded a VIDI program 'Role of Translesion DNA synthesis in Immunity and Cancer Development' from The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development.

Research Interest

Immunology and Cancer development