Gerrit Meijer's Biography

Gerrit Meijer, Professor of Oncologic Pathology, Netherlands Cancer Institute

Gerrit Meijer is professor of pathology with a special interest in gastrointestinal oncology and translational research. After finishing medical school at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam he completed his PhD on “Cancer Risk Assessment in Adenoma Bearing Patients”. He had his training in pathology at the VU University Medical Center (VUMC) where he continued to work as a pathologist and from 2009 as chair of the Department of Pathology. Since March 2015 he is head of the Department of Pathology and Group leader at the Netherlands Cancer Institute/Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. Professor Meijer leads a translational research group that focuses on gastrointestinal cancer, especially biomarker development for early detection of colorectal cancer, as well as on definition of molecular intermediate endpoints for screening. This work is a.o. funded by a Stand Up To Cancer & Dutch Cancer Society “Dream Team” grant for early detection of colorectal cancer. Next to that he is involved in the development of (inter-)national research infrastructures for biobanking and research IT, including Health-RI, BBMRI, EATRIS, tranSMART foundation as well as AACR GENIE. Gerrit Meijer has been and still is closely involved in the development, implementation and execution of the Dutch national colorectal cancer screening program, serving on several program committees.