About

Prof van Dongen finished his undergraduate (cum laude) and Ph.D. study in molecular cell biology at the University of Utrecht. In 1989 he received a staff position at the Dept of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery VUmc at the laboratory for tumor biology, with focus on experimental detection and targeted therapy (especially monoclonal antibodies) of head-neck cancer.

In 2002 he became full professor at this department. In 2006 he also became head radiochemistry at the Dept of Nuclear Medicine and PET research (Radionuclide Center). He has several functions in science and technology management. He is coordinator of one of the four research programs at the Cancer Center Amsterdam/VUmc Institute for Cancer and Immunology designated “Disease profiling”, connecting the translational research line of molecular diagnosis – molecular target discovery – molecular imaging – molecular targeted therapy.

He is member of the scientific committee of VU/VUmc hospital and university, and participates in the commission “principle executives” VUmc.He is permanent advisor of the Technology Transfer Office VU/VUmc, and project leader for the foundation of a 100 M€ Imaging Center at VU/VUmc. He is reviewer, “rapporteur” and advisor for oncology programs of EU, and is involved in the organization of an European physical infrastructure for translational research (EATRIS). Besides projects supported by cancer and technology foundations and EU, he has many collaborations with biotech, pharma and imaging companies, e.g within the framework of the Dutch Center for Translational Molecular Medicine (CTMM). He has brought > 20 antibody conjugates, prepared in own licensed GMP facilities, in first-in-man studies. He supervised 10 Ph.D. projects, is author and co-author of > 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and is inventor at several patents.