Jan Hendrik Jozef Hoeijmakers (born 15 March in 1951 in

Sevenum Sevenum (; ) is a town in the province of Limburg in southeastern Netherlands. Until 2010, it was also the name of the municipality comprising the towns of Sevenum, Kronenberg and Evertsoord. Amusement park Toverland is located in Sevenum. Lo ...

) is a Dutch molecular biologist, biochemist, and molecular geneticist.

Education and career

Hoeijmakers studied biology from 1969 at the

Radboud University Nijmegen Radboud University (abbreviated as RU, , formerly ) is a public university, public research university located in Nijmegen, Netherlands. RU has seven faculties and more than 24,000 students. Established in 1923, Radboud University has consistentl ...

with receiving his MSc degree in molecular biology in 1975 (with a focus on biochemistry and genetics). At the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

he performed his doctoral research from 1975 to 1979 and then was a lecturer at the department of microbiology from 1979 to 1981. He obtained a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in molecular medicine in 1981 from the University of Amsterdam (with a complete publication list) under

Piet Borst Piet Borst CBE (born 5 July 1934, in Amsterdam) is emeritus professor of clinical biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Amsterdam (UVA), and until 1999 director of research and chairman of the board of directors of the Netherla ...

with dissertation '' Trypanosomes:

Kinetoplast A kinetoplast is a network of circular DNA (called kDNA) inside a mitochondrion that contains many copies of the mitochondrial genome. The most common kinetoplast structure is a disk, but they have been observed in other arrangements. Kinetoplasts ...

DNA and Antigenic Variation''. At

Erasmus University Rotterdam Erasmus University Rotterdam ( ; abbreviated as EUR) is a public research university located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th-century Christian humanist and theologian. Erasmus M ...

, as a member of

Dirk Bootsma Dirk Bootsma (23 May 1936 – 5 October 2020) was a Dutch geneticist. He was a professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam from 1969 and 2002. He and his research group discovered the cause of chronic myelogenous leukemia and furthered the understan ...

's group in the Institute of Genetics, Hoeijmakers was, in the department of cell biology and genetics, a senior scientist from 1981 to 1985, an associate professor from 1985 to 1993, and a professor of molecular genetics from 1993 to the present. The

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

sponsored him as an Academy Professor from 2011 to 2016. He is the author or co-author of over 490 scientific publications. He has served on the editorial boards of five scientific journals. In 1983 he received the Harold-Quintus-Bosz Prize for his dissertation, in which he clarified the molecular mechanism of the

antigen In immunology, an antigen (Ag) is a molecule, moiety, foreign particulate matter, or an allergen, such as pollen, that can bind to a specific antibody or T-cell receptor. The presence of antigens in the body may trigger an immune response. ...

variation of

trypanosomes Trypanosomatida is a group of kinetoplastid unicellular organisms distinguished by having only a single flagellum. The name is derived from the Greek language, Greek ''trypano'' (borer) and ''soma'' (body) because of the corkscrew-like motion of ...

. He uncovered the structure and main function of the network

mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the D ...

of the parasite. He also clarified the complex genetic mechanism by which trypanosomes constantly change their surface antigens in order to escape the immune system. In Rotterdam in the early 1980s he achieved the first cloning of human genes responsible for DNA repair and discovered a strong evolutionary stability of the DNA repair system. He clarified the mechanism of

nucleotide excision repair Nucleotide excision repair is a DNA repair mechanism. DNA damage occurs constantly because of chemicals (e.g. Intercalation (biochemistry), intercalating agents), radiation and other mutagens. Three excision repair pathways exist to repair single ...

(NER) and associated hereditary diseases (

xeroderma pigmentosum Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a genetic disorder in which there is a decreased ability to repair DNA damage such as that caused by ultraviolet (UV) light. Symptoms may include a severe sunburn after only a few minutes in the sun, freckling in su ...

Cockayne syndrome Cockayne syndrome (CS), also called Neill-Dingwall syndrome, is a rare and fatal autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by growth failure, impaired development of the nervous system, abnormal sensitivity to sunlight ( photo ...

trichothiodystrophy Trichothiodystrophy (TTD) is an autosomal recessive inherited disorder characterised by brittle hair and intellectual impairment. The word breaks down into ''tricho'' – "hair", '' thio'' – "sulphur", and ''dystrophy'' – "wasting away" or lit ...

). He found with Jean-Marc Egly that

Transcription Factor II H Transcription factor II H (TFIIH) is an important protein complex, having roles in transcription of various protein-coding genes and DNA nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathways. TFIIH first came to light in 1989 when general transcription fact ...

(TF_IIH) opens the DNA for the start of the NER. Hoeijmakers was elected in 2000 a member of the

(section ‘Medicine’, dept. ‘Physics’). (with list of 5 key publications) In 2013 he was appointed a Knight in the

Order of the Netherlands Lion The Order of the Netherlands Lion, also known as the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands (, ) is a Dutch honours system, Dutch order of chivalry founded by William I of the Netherlands on 29 September 1815. The Order of the Netherlands Lion wa ...

for important research in cancer and aging. He received in 1986 the Snoo van t’Hoogerhuys Prize (for the isolation of the first human gene for DNA repair) and in 1995 the

Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine Established in 1986, the Louis-Jeantet Prizes are funded by the Louis-Jeantet Foundation, ''Fondation Louis-Jeantet'' and awarded each year to experienced researchers who have distinguished themselves in the field of biomedical research in one ...

(jointly with Dirk Bootsma for their research on DNA repair). (in French) In 1995 Hoeijmakers was elected a member of the

European Molecular Biology Organization The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 2,100 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds cour ...

(EMBO). He received in 1998 the

Spinoza Prize The Spinoza Prize () is an annual award of 1.5 million euro prize money, to be spent on new research given by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The award is the highest scientific award in the Netherlands. It is named after the philosopher Baruc ...

, the highest Dutch science award. (in Dutch) He received in 2000 both the Van Gogh award from the ''Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek'' (NWO) (''i.e.'' Dutch Organization for Science) and the Descartes-Huygens award for French-Dutch scientific collaborations and in 2001 the Josephine Nefkens Prize for Cancer Research. In 2008 the

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

awarded him an Advanced Grant. In 2011 he received the Queen Wilhelmina Research Award from the Dutch Society for Cancer Research and, with

Bert Vogelstein Bert Vogelstein (born 1949) is director of the Ludwig Center, Clayton Professor of Oncology and Pathology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at The Johns Hopkins Medical School and Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. A pi ...

, the Charles Rodolphe Brupbacher Prize for Cancer Research for research on genome stability and its role in aging and cancer. In 2017 Hoeijmakers received the International Prize of the

Olav Thon Foundation The Olav Thon Foundation () is a Norwegian foundation and as such the biggest in Norway. Information In accordance with its statutes, the Olav Thon Foundation's primary activity is to own the Olav Thon Group, including the hotel chain Thon Ho ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoeijmakers, Jan Biogerontologists Dutch molecular biologists Dutch biochemists Dutch geneticists Radboud University Nijmegen alumni University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of Erasmus University Rotterdam Knights of the Order of the Netherlands Lion Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Spinoza Prize winners People from Limburg (Netherlands) 1951 births Living people