Cisca Wijmenga
Tjitske Nienke "Cisca" Wijmenga (born February 16, 1964 in Drachten ) is a Dutch human geneticist.
Wijmenga studied biology at the University of Groningen and received her doctorate cum laude from the University of Leiden in 1993 (Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy: from genetic mapping towards gene cloning). In 1994/95 she was a post-doctoral student at the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health with Francis Collins. She then went to Utrecht University , where she became a professor in 2003. She has been Professor of Human Genetics at the Medical Faculty of the University of Groningen since 2007 .
Wijmenga is a leading scientist in mapping human genes for the causes of genetically complex diseases. She examined the genetic risk factors in celiac disease ( gluten intolerance, a chronic autoimmune disease of the intestine), identifying 39 risk loci, and developed genetic test methods for it and other autoimmune diseases (immunochip) with an international consortium. She found genetic overlaps between risk genes for celiac disease and other autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, Crohn's disease) that seem very different at first glance. Before that, she had already achieved success in determining genetic defects associated with type 2 diabetes and leukemia as well as aneurysms in the brain. She led a project to map the genetic material of the Dutch population (Genoom van Nederland, GoNL), which also brought new insights into the historical development of the population of the Netherlands.
She is the director of the Association of Dutch Biobanks (BBMRI-NL2.0). In 2012 she received an ERC Advanced Grant and in 2015 the Spinoza Prize . In 2012 she became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. She was a Distinguished Visitor of Harvard Medical School in 2009 and is a member of the Academia Europaea . In 2012 she was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW).
Web links
- Homepage
- NWO-Spinozapremie 2015 , NWO (Dutch)
References and comments
- ↑ Genoom van Nederland ( Memento of the original from June 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wijmenga, Cisca |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wijmenga, Tjitske Nienke |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch human geneticist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 16, 1964 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Drachten |