Cees van Kooten is professor in experimental nephrology and transplant immunology, head of the immunological research laboratory of the section nephrology of the department of internal medicine and part of the Einthoven laboratory of vascular and regenerative medicine. He is chair of the exam committee master Biomedical Sciences.

More information about Cornelis van Kooten

Cees van Kooten is professor in experimental nephrology and transplant immunology, head of the immunological research laboratory of the section nephrology of the department of internal medicine and part of the Einthoven laboratory of vascular and regenerative medicine. He is chair of the exam committee master Biomedical Sciences.

Renal transplantation

Renal transplantation is a life saving procedure and strongly increases the quality of life. However, transplanted patients are dependent on a life long treatment with immunosuppressive medication. Renal transplantation results in a strong and unique immune reaction. it is increasingly clear that the process of rejection is complex and includes many arms of the immune system, including innate immunity.

The current challenge in transplantation is to find ways to inhibit the chronic injury of the tissue and at the same time reduce the burden of immunosuppressive medication and make immunosuppression more specific. To reach this final goal, basic, clinical and translational research projects are being exploited. Detailed knowledge on the rejection process and state of the art methods to monitor these immune responses will be instrumental to develop and implement novel therapeutic strategies including immunotherapy and cell therapy. This research at the crossroad of transplantation, immunology and nephrology will be a major contribution to the development of Regenerative Medicine.

Academic career

Cees van Kooten studied biology at the University of Amsterdam with specializations in immunology and molecular biology and graduated in 1987. After a 3 month stay at the Department of Clinical Immunology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, he started on his doctoral research in Amsterdam in the Department Autoimmune diseases of the CLB (the “blood bank”). In 1992 he successfully defended his dissertation, entitled “The role of cytokines in the activation of human malignant B cells”. Subsequently, he spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the renowned immunological research Institute from Schering Plough in Lyon, France. In 1995, he moved as a post-doc to the Department of Nephrology of the LUMC, followed by a fellowship from the Royal Dutch Academy of Science (KNAW) fellowship at the LUMC to investigate the role of CD40-CD40L in the rejection of transplanted kidneys. In 2003 he became associate professor and in 2009 he was appointed as professor in Experimental Nephrology and Transplant Immunology at the Leiden University Medical Center. The title of his inaugural lecture was “TOPsport op gladde bruggen-TOPsports on slippery bridges”.

Cees van Kooten is (co) author of over 250 scientific articles. He has garnered substantial research grants. He has been active in reviewing both for scientific journals as well as for grant organizations, he is a former member of the scientific board of the Dutch Kidney Foundation and former treasurer of the Dutch Society for Immunology (NvvI). Currently he is member of the Immunonephrology Working Group of the European ERA/EDTA.

Cees van Kooten has been  (co)-supervisor of more than 20 PhD students and has been active in the teaching program of the LUMC in Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, ranging from bachelor and master student to post-doctoral courses.

Prizes and honourable appointments

Cees van Kooten received a research grant from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW, 1997) and the C.J.Kok award of the University Leiden (1999). He received the Dolph Adams Award 2004 for the best cited review in the J Leukoc Biol and the Anthony P Monaco Award 2014 for the best translational science publication in Transplantation.

More information:

http://www.einthovenlaboratory.com/cees-van-kooten-phd/

Publications