Abstract

Thijn Brummelkamp uses genetic approaches to identify genes that play a role in human disease. His primary interests are cancer research, infectious disease and drug action. Thijn has developed technologies to accelerate genetic analysis of cultured mammalian cells. A ‘stable RNA interference’ process, which he and his colleagues described, is now widely used to manipulate and study gene function in mammalian cells. Thijn Brummelkamp has used stable RNA interference to inhibit thousands of human genes, in order to find specific genes that play a role in human disease. More recently his group has developed an approach for haploid genetic screens in human cells using insertional mutagenesis. He has used this approach to identify host factors used by a variety of pathogens. Thijn was appointed as a Whitehead Fellow in 2004 and in 2011 his laboratory moved to the Netherlands Cancer Institute. He has received numerous international awards and was chosen as one of the world’s top 35 Young Innovators by MIT ’s technology Review magazine (2005).