Edwin Cuppen

Group leader

Edwin Cuppen obtained his masters in molecular sciences at the Agricultural University Wageningen in 1994 (cum laude) and his PhD degree in 1999 at the Radboud University in Nijmegen. From 1999 to 2002 he performed postdoctoral research at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam and the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in the group of Prof. Ronald Plasterk. In 2002 he became staff scientist at the Hubrecht Institute and in 2007 he was appointed professor of Genome Biology at the Biology department of the Utrecht University. In 2009 he became head of the research section of the Medical Genetics department of the University Medical Center Utrecht, while continuing his work at the Hubrecht Institute. His area of expertise is in genomics and genetics and his work on natural and induced genetic variation in the laboratory rat lead to a prestigious European Young Investigator Award in 2005. In his current work he combines experimental methods, including next-generation sequencing technology and animal model studies, with bioinformatic approaches to identify functional elements in genomes and to understand the effects of genetic variation under normal and disease conditions.
His group has specialized in studing genomic structural variation and they are using NGS-based techniques like (small) RNA sequencing, ChIP-Seq, and 4C-seq to detect molecular consequences and dissect underlying biological mechanisms. Furthermore, within the Medical Center settings, he is involved in implementing NGS approaches for diagnostic purposes in clinical genetics (coordinator Center for Genome Diagnostics) and personalized cancer treatment (cofounder of Center for Personalized Cancer Treatment).
Edwin Cuppen is cofounder of the biotech startup InteRNA Technologies that focuses on miRNA-based diagnostics and therapeutics.

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