D. Michiel Pegtel's Biography

D. Michiel Pegtel, Associate Professor, Amsterdam University Medical Center

Michiel Pegtel conducted practical training as an undergraduate student at the National Cancer Institute (Bethesda,USA) and obtained a PhD in Immunology at Tufts University Medical School (Boston,USA) working on Epstein virus-induced cancers in collaboration with the MIT/Harvard Broad Institute (Cambridge,USA). After postdoctoral training at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (Amsterdam, Netherlands) working on tumor cell biology, he started the ERG at the Amsterdam UMC working on virus-modified EVs. Michiel was recognized by Clarivate in 2021 as one of the world’s highly cited researchers. Current members of his group investigate i) the molecular dynamics of EV biogenesis and release ii) small RNA sorting into EVs and iii) exploiting exosomes for drug delivery. For his early discovery of functional miRNA transfer via exosomes Michiel was awarded the Beijerinck Virology Premium from the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. He is an inventor of multiple patents and cofounder of ExBiome a molecular diagnostics start-up aimed at developing liquid biopsy tests focusing on hematological cancers.