Peter ten Dijke - Biography#

Peter ten Dijke is professor in Molecular Cell Biology, in particular signal transduction, at Leiden University (The Netherlands), and section head at the department of Cell and Chemical Biology, Leiden University Medical Center. Ten Dijke obtained his MSc and PhD at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, performing his PhD research at Oncogene Science Inc, where he also started his career as scientist. He then worked at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Uppsala (Sweden) before moving back to the Netherlands, first as section head at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, and since 2005 in Leiden. His outstanding international reputation is illustrated by multiple visiting professorships and his honorary doctorate from Uppsala University.

He has made unique and fundamental contributions to decrypting the highly complex and finely regulated code of inter- and intra-cellular signaling. His research focuses on investigating the multifunctional signaling molecule transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and its related pathways. Specifically, ten Dijke was the first to clone the third isoform of the TGF-β ligand as well as multiple TGF-β receptors. These results then triggered international efforts to identify the downstream intracellular effectors of these molecules. To this effort, ten Dijke contributed by identifying SMADs as transcription factors and SMAD7 as a potent intracellular inhibitor. This research line eventually led to the development of the first generation of TGF‐β kinase inhibitors that were developed as a treatment against cancer.

The high originality of ten Dijke’s work is underscored by ten patent applications, of which two were granted, one on antibodies binding to activin like receptors and one related to the identification of SMAD7. In addition to developing potential cancer treatments, ten Dijke’s team identified which TGF-β signaling modulators should be targeted by small chemical inhibitors and antibody-based pharmacological agents to treat bone disorders or cardiovascular diseases. By working at the interface of chemistry and biology using state-of-the-art methods, ten Dijke continues to discover novel drug targets. His current research focuses on using synthetic drug molecules to overcome the drawbacks of existing technologies to provide treatments for unmet medical needs.