Hendrik Veelken is Professor of Internal Medicine, specifically Haematology, and chair of the Department of Haematology. He is director of the LUMC stem cell transplantation programme. In addition, he holds the function of chairman of the LUMC Oncology Centre.

More information about Joan Hendrik Veelken

Haematology

The scientific discipline of Haematology studies the function and aberrations of the blood, of the haematopoietic system, and of the lymphatic organs. As medical specialty, haematology addresses the causes, diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, and prevention of diseases of the blood and of the lymphatic system.

At LUMC, haematology concentrates on the treatment of haematological malignancies, whereby research focuses as “precision hematology” on the development of effective, personalized therapies based on the core competence immunology.
The personal research topics of Hendrik Veelken include precision diagnostics of haematological malignancies through modern genetic technologies and the role of immunological mechanisms in the origin of malignant lymphomas as the malignancies of the immune system.

Academic career

Hendrik Veelken received his MD degree and the promotion to Dr. med. with his dissertation “Monoclonal antibodies against mast cell lines of the mouse: Development and functional studies” in 1988 from the University of Mainz.
From  1989 to 1992, he performed research in molecular genetics as postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pathology of Harvard Medical School. In 1998, he completed his medical training in Hematology and Medical Oncology at University Medical Centre Freiburg and received his Habilitation (PhD equivalent) of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Freiburg for his dissertation “Genetic modification of somatic cells ex vivo for therapeutic use in haematology and oncology”. After a research period from 2000 onwards at Stanford University, he was appointed tenured Professor of Medical Molecular Biology at the University of Freiburg in 2002. In 2010, LUMC appointed him as Professor and Department Chair in Haematology. He gave his inaugural speech with the title “The new approach to lymphomas” on 29 august, 2011.

Publications