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Prof. Anton Berns
EACS Governing Board Members
Board member, Past president
Anton Berns studied biochemistry at the University of Nijmegen and received his Master's degree in 1969 and his PhD in 1972 from that same University, both with honors. He did his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Rudolf Jaenisch at the Salk Institute in La Jolla. In 1976 he returned to the University of Nijmegen where he explored proviral insertional mutagenesis as a means to identify new oncogenes. In 1985 he was appointed as staff scientist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and in 1986 he became head of the Division of Molecular Genetics of the Institute. His laboratory has developed many genetically engineered mouse models for cancer with the aim to better understand the underlying biology. His laboratory has been specifically interested in unraveling the contribution of individual molecular driver lesions to the development of small cell lung cancer, lung adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and mesothelioma.
In 1999 he was appointed as Director of Research and Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Netherlands Cancer Institute - Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital. He retired from that position at the end of 2011 after which he continued his laboratory research until 2019. He has received a number of prestigious prizes for his research. He is elected member of several academies: The Netherlands Academy of Sciences, The European Academy of Cancer Science. He is a foreign member of the American Academy of Sciences, EMBO member, and Fellow of the AACR. He served on the EMBO council and as its Secretary General. He was and still is member of scientific advisory boards of a number cancer institutes in Europe. He also acted as president of the European Association of Cancer Research and the European Academy of Cancer Sciences. He serves as editor of PNAS, as reviewer of manuscripts and grant applications.
