Spotlight on Organoids

Hans Clevers, MD, PhD

Professor Hans Clevers, MD, PhD, is a professor at the Hubrecht Institute, which is an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in the Dutch city of Utrecht. His group studies the molecular mechanisms of tissue development and cancer of various organs using organoids. His pioneering research on the developmental signaling pathway and led his group to major discoveries in the cancer and stem cell fields, ultimately resulting in technologies to grow human stem cells into mini-organs (organoids) in a dish. His research accomplishments have been recognized with the Louis Jeantet Prize and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, amongst many others. In March 2022, Hans was named head of the Roche Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development, a position he held for more than three years until returning to the Netherlands in August 2025.  

Born and raised in the south of the Netherlands, Clevers studied biochemistry and medicine in Utrecht. After earning his PhD in immunology, Hans trained as a molecular biologist at Harvard. Back in Utrecht, he became professor in immunology at the university hospital, director of the Hubrecht Institute for developmental biology (2002), and finally research director of the Princess Máxima Center for childhood cancer (2015). As president of KNAW, he founded the Academy of Arts. Hans is a member of multiple learned societies including the KNAW, the National Academy of Sciences in the U.S., the Académie Française, the order Pour le Mérite of Germany, and the Royal Society. He holds knighthoods in Holland, France, and Germany.