Jos van der Meer

Jos W.M. van der Meer

Jos W.M. van der Meer, 2010
Born (1947-04-15) April 15, 1947
The Hague, Netherlands
Nationality Dutch
Fields Medicine
Infectious diseases
Institutions Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre
Alma mater Leiden University
Doctoral advisor Ralph van Furth
Other academic advisors Charles A. Dinarello
Notable students Mihai G. Netea, Joost P.H. Drenth, Anna Simon

Jos W.M. van der Meer (born April 15, 1947) is professor and chairman at the department of internal medicine of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in Nijmegen, Netherlands. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 2003), of which he is vice president and chairman of the division of natural sciences (since 2006). He performs research on cytokines and host defence, chronic fatigue syndrome and Hyper-IgD syndrome(HIDS). He is also active in graphic art and makes cartoons, for example for the Dutch science journal Mediator.

History

In 1984, van der Meer published the first paper about hyper-immunoglobulinemia D (HIDS), the new "periodic fever" syndrome he had discovered.[1] This was the start of his research on interleukin-1 (IL-1) and his collaboration with Dr. Charles A. Dinarello, to find out whether this was an IL-1 disease. In the early 1990s together with his former PhD student Joost PH Drenth, he collected data on HIDS patients in the Netherlands and abroad and characterised the inflammatory response in HIDS (increased IL-1β production of the white blood cells). In 1999, Drenth and van der Meer could establish – together with the group of Dr. Marc Delpech in Paris – that the syndrome was due to mutations of the gene encoding for mevalonate kinase, an enzyme in the cholesterol synthesis pathway.[2] Independently – and at the same time – the group of Professor Ronald Wanders (Amsterdam), also found this genetic defect.

Together with Anna Simon and Joost Drenth he established that HIDS should be considered an auto-inflammatory syndrome. Some 5 years ago, his group discovered that recombinant interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA, anakinra) is effective as a treatment for HIDS. This finding not only provides patients with an effective therapy, but also provides further proof that HIDS is an interleukin-1 disease.[3]

Since 1987, van der Meer worked on the role of cytokines in health and inflammatory disease. The work started in Boston and was continued in Nijmegen. In the years to follow, Bart-Jan Kullberg (1992), Mihai Netea (1994) and Leo AB Joosten (2007) joined the group. Major findings of the group are:

As a clinician confronted with patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), van der Meer was intrigued by their suffering. Since 1989 together with Gijs Bleijenberg and Jochem MD Galama, he performed research trying to understand CFS. Major findings are:

Concerned about the increasing antimicrobial resistance in the world, he was one of the founders (and first chairman) of the Dutch working group on antibiotic policy, SWAB, which receives long-term support from the Ministry of Health in the Netherlands. At the European level, he was a co-founder and first chairman of the ESGAP (ESCMID study group on antimicrobial policy).

Since 1990, van der Meer is involved with biomedical research development and capacity building in Indonesia (first in Semarang, later in Jakarta and Bandung). In 2004, together with Andre JAM van der Ven, he took the initiative to establish PRIOR (Poverty Related Infection Oriented Research), a virtual collaborative centre in which research groups in Jakarta and Bandung in Indonesia (Professor Sangkot Marzuki), KCMC Moshi, Tanzania (Professor Shao), Nijmegen (Professor AJAM van der Ven), Leiden (Professor Tom Ottenhoff), Maastricht (Professor Harm Hospers), RIVM Bilthoven (Professor Dick van Soolingen), and Wageningen (Professor Clive West †) work together in the combat of poverty-related infections (especially HIV infection and tuberculosis).

Awards

-*Together with others

References

  1. van der Meer JW, Vossen JM, Radl J, et al. (May 1984). "Hyperimmunoglobulinaemia D and periodic fever: a new syndrome". Lancet. 1 (8386): 1087–90. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(84)92505-4. PMID 6144826.
  2. Drenth JP, Cuisset L, Grateau G, et al. (June 1999). "Mutations in the gene encoding mevalonate kinase cause hyper-IgD and periodic fever syndrome. International Hyper-IgD Study Group". Nature Genetics. 22 (2): 178–81. doi:10.1038/9696. PMID 10369262.
  3. van der Hilst JC, Bodar EJ, Barron KS, et al. (November 2008). "Long-term follow-up, clinical features, and quality of life in a series of 103 patients with hyperimmunoglobulinemia D syndrome". Medicine. 87 (6): 301–10. doi:10.1097/MD.0b013e318190cfb7. PMID 19011501.
  4. van der Meer JW, Barza M, Wolff SM, Dinarello CA (March 1988). "A low dose of recombinant interleukin 1 protects granulocytopenic mice from lethal gram-negative infection". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 85 (5): 1620–3. doi:10.1073/pnas.85.5.1620. PMC 279825Freely accessible. PMID 3125553.
  5. Netea MG, Demacker PN, Kullberg BJ, et al. (March 1996). "Low-density lipoprotein receptor-deficient mice are protected against lethal endotoxemia and severe gram-negative infections". The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 97 (6): 1366–72. doi:10.1172/JCI118556. PMC 507194Freely accessible. PMID 8617867.
  6. Ferwerda B, McCall MB, Alonso S, et al. (October 2007). "TLR4 polymorphisms, infectious diseases, and evolutionary pressure during migration of modern humans". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 104 (42): 16645–50. doi:10.1073/pnas.0704828104. PMC 2034238Freely accessible. PMID 17925445.
  7. Ferwerda B, Ferwerda G, Plantinga TS, et al. (October 2009). "Human dectin-1 deficiency and mucocutaneous fungal infections". The New England Journal of Medicine. 361 (18): 1760–7. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa0901053. PMC 2773015Freely accessible. PMID 19864674.
  8. van de Veerdonk FL, Smeekens SP, Joosten LA, et al. (February 2010). "Reactive oxygen species-independent activation of the IL-1beta inflammasome in cells from patients with chronic granulomatous disease". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 107 (7): 3030–3. doi:10.1073/pnas.0914795107. PMC 2840365Freely accessible. PMID 20133696.
  9. de Lange FP, Koers A, Kalkman JS, et al. (August 2008). "Increase in prefrontal cortical volume following cognitive behavioural therapy in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome". Brain. 131 (Pt 8): 2172–80. doi:10.1093/brain/awn140. PMID 18587150.
  10. "Jos van der Meer" (in Dutch). Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  11. Biography at the Academy of Europe
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