1993-1997:
Postdoctoral Fellow, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
1993:
PhD, IMG, Prague
2002:
Otto Wichterle Award
Identification of Troy gene as a marker of intestinal stem cells
Using modern molecular biology methods, we identified the gene/protein TROY as a novel stem cell marker and determined its potential function in intestinal epithelial cells. [pubmed] [doi]
Discovery of a link between JAK2 gene mutations and predisposition to rare blood cancers
The results of this study show that some mutations in the JAK2 gene enhance JAK2 signalling and cause a specific clinical course of the disease. This “mutational landscape” is known in the genome of patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms. [pubmed] [doi]
Identification of a tissue niche for colonic epithelial stem cells
We have shown that the (sub)population of mesenchymal cells forms a specialized microenvironment, the so-called niche, for epithelial cells in the colon. These mesenchymal cells secrete Wnt factors – when secretion is blocked, stem cell renewal is disrupted, leading to compromised integrity of the colon epithelium. [pubmed] [doi]