Fred van Leeuwen has a longstanding interest in how non-genetic changes can have long-term consequences for cellular function. He has worked in different fields of epigenetics; starting by investigating an unusual DNA modification in trypanosomes as a graduate student, and currently using yeast as a powerful model system and mouse cancer models to discover new mechanisms of epigenetic regulation. His lab currently focuses on key issues in epigenetics and teams up with international collaborators to tackle these problems.
Fred van Leeuwen began his scientific career at the NKI working on the unusual DNA base J in African trypanosomes. He developed an interest in epigenetics - the process by which genes are stably switched on or off. He trained as a post doc in the lab of Dan Gottschling at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle (USA) to study epigenetic mechanisms in budding yeast where he discovered a novel histone methyltransferase and developed tools to study histone dynamics. This work was supported by fellowships of the Dutch Cancer Society, EMBO, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.