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I am assistant professor at the Department of Dermatology of the University of Amsterdam (AMC). Here you can find information about my research activities concerning the immunology of vitiligo and melanoma. Latest activities Juni 2010: A press release about the disseratation of my phd-student Jasper van den Boorn drew a lot of media attention. It was published in De Telegraaf (the biggest newspaper in the Netherlands), but also on a lot of newswebsites. Read what others write about my work. May 2010: Informing the public about our melanoma and vitiligo research, at the opening ceremony of the "Skin Center" at the Netherlands Cancer Institute/Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital (NKI-AVL) at the national day "Protect your skin" (Landelijke Bescherm je Huid Dag 2010). Read more in Dutch. May 2010: New publication in the journal PLoS ONE about our newly developed melanoma therapy using monobenzone. Read more. April 2010: Organisor of the VVViO symposium of the "Vereniging voor Vernieuwingsimpuls Onderzoekers" (VVViO), the association of laureates of the NWO innovational research program. Read more. April 2010: New publication: First histopathological and immunophenotypic analysis of early dynamic events in a patient with segmental vitiligo associated with halo nevi. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res. 2010 Apr 1. [Epub ahead of print]. Read more February 2010: Oral and poster presentations of our vitiligo and atopic dermatitis research at the Annual meeting of the Dutch Society for Experimental Dermatology (NVED, Lunteren, NL) Highlights 2009 | Highlights 2008 | Highlights 2007 | Highlights 2006 | Highlights 2005 | Highlights 2004 Highlights 2009 November 2009: Invited speaker at the retreat of the Center for Experimental and Molecular Medicine of the AMC. November 2009: Our research grant (2008) from the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF Kankerbestrijding) is sponsored by the fund raising activities of the Foundation Go for Mont Ventoux. Invited speaker at the Afterparty of the Foundation to present the research project and receive the cheque of 134,000 euro. Read more (in Dutch): KWF kankerbestrijding, Meppeler Courant and Stichting Go for Mont Ventoux. September 2009: Oral and poster presentations at the 15th meeting of the European Society for Pigment Cell Research (ESPCR) in Muenster, Germany. April 2009: Invited speaker at the Karolinska Dermatology Symposium at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden April 2009: Organisor and Chair of panel debate at the VVViO symposium of the "Vereniging voor Vernieuwingsimpuls Onderzoekers" (VVViO), the association of laureates of the NWO innovational research program. Read More. March 2009: Invited speaker at the "Nascholing" symposium of the Dutch Society of Dermatology and Venereology (NVDV), in Amsterdam. January 2009: Two poster presentations of our vitiligo and melanoma research at the Keystone conference "Mobilizing Cellular Immunity for Cancer Therapy" in Snowbird, Utah. January 2009: New publication: Autoimmune destruction of skin melanocytes by perilesional T cells from vitiligo patients. J. Invest. Dermatol. 2009. Read more Highlights 2008 December 2008: Dutch Cancer Society (KWF Kankerbestrijding) fellowship for medical interns granted to drs. H-E Teulings. January 2008: Research grant obtained from the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF Kankerbestrijding). This research grant was obtained in collaboration with dr. K.A Reedquist. The project aims at employing Rap-1 signaling pathways to improve T cell-mediated immunotherapy of melanoma. Read more in Dutch January 2008: Appointed as Head of the Laboratory of Experimental Dermatology. Top Highlights 2007 December 2007: Oral presentation of Esther Tjin at the Annual meeting of the Dutch Society for Immunology (NVVI) in Noordwijkerhout. November 2007: Invited speaker at the Principal Investigator (PI) retreat of the Center for Immunology Amsterdam (CIA) in Schoorl. November 2007: Vice-chair of the "Vereniging voor Vernieuwingsimpuls Onderzoekers" (VVViO), the association of laureates of the NWO innovational research program. Organiser and panel debater of the VVViO symposium on the latest science policy of minister of Education Ronald Plasterk, in The Hague. November 2007: ESMO symposium on Immunology in Athens. October 2007: Organisor of the Dermatology stand at the "Wetenschapsdag", a science market for the public at the Academic Medical Center (AMC). September 2007: Invited speaker at the annual meeting of the PanAmerican Society for Pigment Cell Research (PASPCR) in Chicago. September 2007: Open House (in pdf) at the Netherlands Institute for Pigment Disorders (SNIP), an informative event for patients and the public on the activities of the SNIP. Read more (in Dutch): Leefwijzer, AMC press release. April 2007: Invited speaker at the Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS) of the University of Amsterdam. April 2007: Workshop "Vitiligo and Melanoma" at the "MFAS Ouderdag" an informative event for parents of first year medical students at the University of Amsterdam. Read more April 2007: Candidate Board member of the Vereniging voor Vernieuwingsimpuls Onderzoekers (VVViO), the association of laureates the NWO innovational research program. April 2007: Frontbencher at the Plenary Debate at the VI Netwerkbijeenkomst, the network event organised for laureates the the NWO innovational research program. April 2007: Intermediair PhD Career event 2007 in The Passenger Terminal Amsterdam. At this event I represented the Marie Curie fellows Association to promote European research among Dutch PhD's. Read more March 2007: Three poster presentations of our vitiligo and melanoma research at the Keystone conference "The potent new anti-tumor Immunotherapies" in Banff, Canada. March 2007: Invited speaker at the annual meeting of the vitiligo patient society. I presented the latest result of our vitiligo research. February 2007: Two abstracts (in pdf) presented at the Annual meeting of Dutch Society for Experimental Dermatology by Esther Tjin and Jasper van den Boorn of my research group. February 2007: Invited speaker at the KP7 congres 2007, the conference for the 7th Framework Program organised by EG Liaison. Read more (link to s_s): I discussed the impact of a Marie Curie Fellwoship on my research career at the Clinic "International mobility of researchers", entitled: "De Marie Curie Fellowships; uw onderzoeksloopbaan in beweging?" Top Highlights 2006 October/November 2006: Teaching high school students about the world of science. Based on the success of last year, I organised a new round of "profielwerkstukken" to introduce high school students to medical research related to immunology and skin diseases. Read more September 2006: Oral presentation at the 13th meeting of the European Society for Pigment Cell Research 2006 (ESPCR06) in Barcelona. Read more September 2006: I became member of the Dutch Advisory Group for the Marie Curie programme. The Advisory Group provides input to the Programme Committee members, who make up the official Dutch PC delegation to meetings with the European Commission. September: Discovery06, a mix of science and party to promote science among the broad public. The event took place in Pakhuis de Zwijger and met great enthusiasm of the participants! Read more at Discovery06 (in Dutch) May 2006: Intermediair PhD career event in "De Beurs van Berlage" in Amsterdam. At this event I represented the Marie Curie fellows Association to promote European research among Dutch PhD's. Read more   April 2006: Workshop "Vitiligo and Melanoma" at the "MFAS Ouderdag" an informative event for parents of first year medical students at the University of Amsterdam. Read more March 2006: Three new publications The Journal of Experimental Medicine: Radiation modulates the peptide repertoire of MHC class I molecules and induces successful anti-tumor immunotherapy. International Reviews of Immunology: T cell avidity and tuning: the flexible connection between tolerance and autoimmunity. Autoimmunity Reviews: Therapeutic implications of autoimmune vitiligo T cells. February 2006: Invited lecture at the Annual meeting of the Dutch Society of Vitiligo Patients. Read more. January 2006: Thursday meeting of the European Economic and Social Committeee (Brussels), read my report "Europe's hope: the strategy of togetherness". [in pdf] January 2006: Oral presentation at the Annual meeting of the Dutch Society for Experimental Dermatology (Lunteren, NL) Top Highlights 2005 December 2005: Research grant obtained from the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF Kankerbestrijding). This research grant enables my study on why lymphocytes are generally more effective in killing normal pigment cells in the skin than malignant melanoma cells in patients. Read more in English [in pdf] or Dutch [in pdf] December 2005: Clinical study of immunotherapy of melanoma patients published in The Journal of Clinical Oncology Our joint effort as oncologists and immunologists from the Netherlands Cancer Institute to treat melanoma patients with a new therapy resulted in prolonged survival and vitiligo. This results boost our further investigations on the relation between vitiligo and melanoma! Read more November 2005: Teaching high school students about the world of science I took the initiative to organize workshops for high school students to perform small research projects at the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam. These so-called "profielwerkstukken" are a part of the curriculum of the high school degree. This is a unique occasion for students to meet with scientists and learn about the latest developments. Read more November 2005: Conference "Communicating European Science 2005" I participated in the EU conference on science communication. Science has become isolated from society, therefore more explanation and publicity is needed! Communicating skills should be included in the education of scientists to achieve this. Read more [in pdf]. September 2005: 19th International Pigment Cell Conference In a plenary sessions at this confence, I presented my latest results on the role of the immune system in the onset of vitiligo. Jasper van den Boorn, PhD student in my group, was chosen to present his data in a parallel session. Our contributions were awarded with travel grants. Read more June 2005: Science on a Sunday: teaching primary school kids about medicine Together with Prof. R. van Noorden and colleagues, I was invited as guest-teacher at the IMC weekend school. We showed kids of ages between 7 and 10 years, what your own cells look like through the microscope, as well as flees that we had caught in the water next to the AMC. Read more Top Highlights 2004 September 2004: NWO awards me the personal NWO-VIDI grant of E 600K for innovational research With this grant, I have established my own research group at the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam to investigate the immunology of vitiligo and melanoma and find new therapies. Read more Read the interviews with me in 'Cicero Magazine' and 'AMC Magazine (in Dutch). April 2004: Conference "The Europe of knowledge 2020" I participated in the EU conference on science policy in Europe to contribute the scientist point of view on science policies and funding in Europe. Read more: English version | Dutch version (in pdf) Share | . Ontwerp en realisatie: Nico van Dijk Media Top