Maarten Vermeer is head of the department of Dermatology of the Leiden University medical Center (LUMC). He received a clinical fellowship and a Vidi grants from the Dutch Health Council and leads translational research of the EORTC Cutaneous Lymphoma Working group and the Cutaneous Lymphoma International Consortium.

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Maarten Vermeer is head of the department of Dermatology of the Leiden University medical Center (LUMC). He received a clinical fellowship and a Vidi grants from the Dutch Health Council and leads translational research of the EORTC Cutaneous Lymphoma Working group and the Cutaneous Lymphoma International Consortium.

Clinical dermatology

Skin diseases is a diverse and fascinating field due to the large variety of patients and types of disease processes including: inflammatory diseases, infections and skin cancer. It fascinates me that careful inspection of the skin in combination with the histological picture can provide insight into the disease processes underlying the skin condition and can provide leads for better treatment. Within clinical dermatology Vermeer’s specific area of expertise is the diagnosis and treatment of patients with a rare form of skin cancer, namely skin lymphomas. Different types of skin lymphoma differ greatly in clinical presentation, extent and severity of disease and consequently the most optimal therapy. Especially in late stages of the disease, the quality of life can be greatly decreased. The contact with patients inspires Vermeer in finding an optimal treatment and in conducting scientific research aimed at improving the care for these patients.

This research line is in line with the following questions formulated by the Dutch Science Agenda:
Q077. What do non-genetic factors contribute to personal traits and disease processes?
Q081. How will knowledge of genetics play a role in analysing, screening for and treating diseases?
Q085. Every tumour is different, so how can we come to understand cancer well enough to develop a treatment for each and every type??
Q095. How can we personalize health care, for example by using biomarkers?
Q098. How can we use breakthroughs in basic biomedical research to develop new medicines?

Vermeers’s research is performed within the research line Dermato oncology which is embedded in the theme Cancer Pathogenesis and Treatment.

Academic career

Maarten H. Vermeer studied Medicine at the University of Leiden. He specialized in dermatology at the VU University Amsterdam which was combined with scientific research on cutaneous lymphomas. In 2002 he obtained his PhD with the thesis 'Mechanistic aspects of tumor progression in primary cutaneous T-cell lymphoma'. He was appointed professor of Dermatology at the Leiden University Medical Center in May 2013. The title of his inaugural lecture is 'Clinical dermatology. From description, to understanding and treatment'.

Vermeer has been researching the pathogenesis and treatment of cutaneous lymphomas for more than 25 years. He has more than 150 scientific publications to his name. He held a number of national and international positions at scientific and professional organizations.

In the past he was chairman of the board of the International Society of Cutaneous Lymphoma (ISCL) and member of the board of the European Society of Dermatological Research (ESDR), the EORTC Cutaneous Lymphoma Working Group, the Foundation for Dutch Education in Dermatology and Venereology and the committee for post graduate schooling of the Dutch Association of Dermatology and Venereology. He (co) organized the ESDR congress in Rotterdam (2014), the ISCL congress in New York (2016) and the EORTC congress for cutaneous lymphoma in Leiden (2023). In 2016 he was appointed head of the Dermatology department and since 2020 he is member of the board of Division 3 of the LUMC.

Prizes and honourable appointments

He received the Hippocrates prize (1991), the Marie Paris prize (2006) and the 'Leadership Award' from the ISCL (2016).