Piet Borst

Piet Borst (born July 5, 1934 in Amsterdam ) is a Dutch medical biochemist and molecular biologist and newspaper columnist . He brought genetic engineering to the Netherlands early on and does research on cancer.

Borst studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam from 1952 to 1958 and received his doctorate in 1961 at EC Slater with a thesis on cancer research. In 1963 he made his medical exam. From 1963 to 1965 he did research with Severo Ochoa at New York University and was then lecturer in biochemistry at the University of Amsterdam. In 1969 he became professor of clinical biochemistry there. From 1983 he was Scientific Director of the Netherlands Cancer Institute (Nederlands Kanker Instituut, NKI) at the Antoni von Leeuwenhoek Hospital. In 1987 he became director there and in 1999 he retired. He is continuing research there, most recently on the J base , a DNA base newly discovered in trypanosomes by Borst and co-workers, its function and biosynthesis. He is also working on the mechanism by which cancer cells become resistant to drugs.

Borst is also involved in the Netherlands against medical cross-border commuters ( alternative medicine ) and in the "Association against Quackery" (Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij). With this in mind, he regularly writes a column in the NRC Handelsblad .

In 1984 he received the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize , in 1989 the Howard Taylor Ricketts Award and the Leeuwenhoek Medal of the Royal Society , in 1992 the Robert Koch Medal and in 1992 the HP Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics . He is in command of the Order of the Dutch Lion , Foreign Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences , the Royal Society, the National Academy of Sciences , the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , the Academia Europaea and the EMBO . Borst holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Leiden and Dundee .

Titia de Lange is one of his doctoral students .

Web links

• Interview with Vpro, Dutch ( Memento from November 30, 2006 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Borst, Sabatini Base J: Discovery, biosynthesis and possible functions , Ann. Rev. Microbiology, Vol. 62, 2008, pp. 235-251, doi: 10.1146 / annurev.micro.62.081307.162750 .