Hermen Overkleeft, professor of bio-organic chemistry at Leiden University, has won the Spinoza Prize for the innovative way in which he is trying to cure cancer and metabolic diseases.
The Spinoza Prize is the most important scientific award in the Netherlands and consists of a grant of €1.5 million, which can be freely spent on research.
“I am very happy with it; it is a truly wonderful prize to receive,” Overkleeft said in an initial response to the Dutch Research Council (NWO), which awards the prize every year.
The Leiden professor is regarded worldwide as one of the founders of chemical biology and is co-founder of three biotechnology companies that are developing cancer therapies and a medicine for metabolic diseases.
To explain his work, he compares cells to factories with a conveyor belt, where different machines work together to make, for example, proteins, fats and copies of DNA. Mistakes in that production process can lead to disease.
Light
“We can look very specifically at what each cog in that factory does,” Overkleeft told NWO. “We do this by making molecules in the lab that resemble molecules in a cell, such as sugars. By attaching a light to them, we can follow them and see what interactions they have with a machine on the conveyor belt, an enzyme. In this way, we try to understand and influence processes in the body. It is fundamental research that can ultimately translate into medicines for metabolic diseases, certain forms of cancer and the flu virus, among others.”
“I want to develop molecules that break down plants more effectively: that way, you can make sustainable biofuel.”
In metabolic diseases, damage occurs in the brain and nervous system because one of those ‘machines’ works too slowly and substances begin to accumulate.
“We make sure that the rest of the factory adapts to the slower machine by adding a molecule that slows down the process. Fewer products are then made, but you can live perfectly well with that. In addition, we can also block steps in the process that lead to the formation of toxic substances.”
This approach is now being tested in clinical research on patients.
Sharing
Overkleeft and his colleagues also share their molecules with other scientists. “I thought: I can make the data available, but then other researchers still have to make the molecules themselves. That takes a lot of time. In this way, we speed up research worldwide, and it regularly leads to great collaborations.”
He says he is honoured by the prize and already has ideas about how he wants to spend the money.
“I can hire several PhD candidates. And I want to investigate whether we can develop molecules that help break down plants and trees in a sustainable way. Biotechnology is really waiting for this, because it would allow biofuel to be made in a more sustainable way. But first, I would like to consult with colleagues within the Leiden Institute of Chemistry about what we are going to do. I really see the Spinoza Prize as a team prize.”
