Center for Experimental and Molecular Medicine (research)

The Center for Experimental and Molecular Medicine (CEMM) is a laboratory within the AMC which is fully devoted to interdisciplinary fundamental and clinical research of a variety of common diseases (cardiovascular and thrombotic disease, host defense, infectious disease, cancer, and others).

Mission

The mission of CEMM is to perform high quality translational research, bridging fundamental research with preclinical and clinical investigations in the field of Oncology, Infectious Diseases, and Blood Coagulation & Inflammation (i.e. the research groups housed in CEMM).

Goals and ambition

It is the ambition of CEMM to facilitate translational science in the broadest of terms, maintaining strong ties with clinical departments and providing an optimal infrastructure and multidisciplinary environment for the scientific flourish of our research groups. The number one goal is to produce high quality research as reflected by publications in high ranking journals.

The staff of the Center consists of a well-balanced mixture of clinical and fundamental scientists. In its present form, the laboratory has been in function since early 1996, and since then it has grown from 10 to over 120 researchers. The staff members are very pro-active in developing a stimulating environment for education and science in their department and in the AMC. The current staff members of the CEMM are:

Infectious diseases

  • Prof dr T. van der Poll
  • Dr C. van ´t Veer
  • Dr A.F. de Vos
  • Prof. Dr. J.W. Hovius
  • Prof. Dr. W.J. Wiersinga

Lexor

  • Prof dr J.P. Medema, head of department
  • Dr N.A. Franken
  • Prof. Dr. L. Vermeulen
  • Dr. M. Bijlsma
  • Prof. Dr H. van Laarhoven

Lexor MDL

  • Prof. Dr. K.K. Krishnadath

Blood Coagulation

  • Dr C.A.Spek

Leaders and staff members have excellent track records with numerous publications in the highest category of international journals: Nature, Nature Immunology, Nature Medicine, Nature Cell Biology, Cell, PNAS, NEJM, Lancet, JExpMed, JCI, Circulation, etc.

Parameters of esteem include the following:

At present there are around 75 students, with a fundamental (biology, chemistry, pharmacology, cell biology, a.o.) or a medical background working towards a PhD or PhD/MD degree at the laboratory. This relatively large number of students working towards a degree in a single department creates a special atmosphere where science breeds well.

There is always a strong and welcoming international atmosphere in the AMC. The past year the CEMM hosted students from all over the world for long- or short-term fellowships.

The CEMM is literally located centrally within the AMC. It has strong ties with the clinical departments it drains upon for its primary research questions (such as Clinical Oncology, Radiotherapy, Infectious disease and Tropical Medicine, Vascular Medicine and Gastroenterology) but also with other AMC departments like Pathology, Anaesthetics, Surgery, Neurology, and Urology. In addition the laboratory has strong ties, both at the managerial level and at the level of research projects, with fundamental research groups at the AMC. Therefore the laboratory has attained a key position in translational research where clinical and fundamental disciplines meet.

  • Laboratory for Experimental Oncology and Radiobiology
  • Amsterdam Multidisciplinary Lyme Center (AMLC)
  • The Blood Coagulation and Tumor Biology Research
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Oncology Group MDL