Hans Clevers returns to the Hubrecht Institute

Clevers was group leader at the Hubrecht Institute from 2002 until March 2022. During that time, his group identified Lgr5 as a marker for adult stem cells, which eventually led to the development of organoid technology. Clevers and his team described for the first time how to grow organoids – miniature organs – from stem cells.

Starting with mini-guts, the group is now able to grow organoids from almost every organ in the body, mimicking the shape and function of, for example, the stomach, liver, lung, pancreas, eye and brain. They can be used to study the functions of organs in health and disease. Using patient-derived cells, the group can also grow organoids that model diseases such as cancer and cystic fibrosis. These can be used not only to learn more about these diseases, but also as a platform for personalized drug screening.

Bridging the gap

Clevers left the Hubrecht Institute in 2022, to become Head of pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) at Roche in Basel, Switzerland. At Roche he championed the founding of the Institute for Human Biology (IHB), where he currently serves as interim Director. The institute is focused on creating human model systems to accelerate the development of new drugs. With a focus on organoids and organoids-on-a-chip technologies, the institute aims to bridge the gap between academic discoveries and the pharmaceutical industry. “As researchers, we often think that we can transfer our results to industry with a beautiful research paper, but often a close collaboration is additionally needed,” Clevers says. “Establishing a relationship between academia and industry is essential to be able to build on academic research and realize solutions for patients. The IHB was founded to fill that gap.”

Return to academia

While Clevers has always remained involved with the Hubrecht Institute as an advisor and guest researcher, he will now return as group leader to focus fully on science at the Clevers group. “I’m looking forward to guiding our researchers and making exciting new discoveries,” Clevers says. Hubrecht director Geert Kops adds: “We are pleased to welcome Hans Clevers back to the institute, for his groundbreaking science in the past and present, and look forward to the wonderful discoveries yet to come.”