Prof. Dr. Rene H. Medema has worked in the cell cycle field since his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. R.A. Weinberg (Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, MA). His work as an independent group leader at the University Medical Center Utrecht and the Netherlands Cancer Institute has always focused on the control of cell division. The specific research lines in his group have addressed transcriptional regulation of the cell cycle, the function of cell cycle checkpoints, and chromosome segregation.
His group has made several key contributions to the general understanding of control of the cell cycle by Forkhead transcription factors (Medema et al, 2000, Nature 404:p.782; Laoukili et al., 2005, Nat. Cell Biol. 7:p126; Alvarez-Fernandez et al., 2010, EMBO Rep. 11:p.452) and the DNA damage checkpoint (Smits et al, 2000, Nat. Cell Biol. 2:p.672; van Vugt et al., 2004, Mol. Cell 15:p.799; Macurek et al., 2008, Nature 455:p.119; Lindqvist et al., 2009, EMBO J. 28:p.3196). In addition, work from his group has provided more insight on the role of motor proteins in spindle assembly (Tanenbaum et al., 2006, EMBO J. 25:p.45; Tanenbaum et al., 2009, Curr.Biol. 19:p.1703; Tanenbaum et al., 2011, Curr.Biol. 21:p.1356) and the consequences of chromosome missegregation on the genomic stability and viability of a tumor cell (Janssen et al., 2011, PNAS 106:p.19108; Janssen et al., 2011, Science 333:p.1895).
Rene Medema is currently scientific director of the Netherlands Cancer Institute and professor of Experimental Oncology at the University Medical Center Utrecht. He was elected EMBO member in 2007. He is member of the editorial boards of Cancer Research, Oncogene, EMBO Reports and BBA Reviews on Cancer. He also serves on the Committee of Fundamental Research (chairman, since 2013) and the Scientific Council of the Dutch Cancer Society since 2009. Recently he was elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.