PROF.DR.

Full Professor, CCA - Cancer Treatment and quality of life Full Professor, CCA - Imaging and biomarkers

PI
Specialization

Biopharmaceutics | Monoclonal Antibody Development | Advanced Imaging Techniques

Focus of research
  • Development of Biopharmaceuticals: Focusing on the use of Zirconium-89 (89Zr) in immuno-PET imaging to guide and de-risk the development of biopharmaceuticals.
  • Monoclonal Antibody Development: Utilizing immuno-PET as a tool for the development and application of monoclonal antibodies in various medical contexts.
  • Advanced Imaging Techniques: Innovating in imaging through the inert coupling of IRDye800CW and zirconium-89 to monoclonal antibodies and other biopharmaceuticals, enabling both fluorescence and PET imaging, thus improving disease detection and analysis.
  • Clinical Applications in Oncology, Neurology and Rheumatology: Applying immuno-PET imaging in solid tumours and neurodegenerative diseases and exploring the use of zirconium-89 labelled rituximab PET-CT imaging in rheumatoid arthritis for therapeutic response prediction.
  • Development of Antibody and Nanobody Drug Donjugates. Focus on efficient and inert conjugation of various types of drugs.

Prof. dr. Guus van Dongen completed his undergraduate and PhD studies in molecular cell biology at the University of Utrecht, graduating cum laude. He began his career in 1986 at the Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery at the Amsterdam UMC, focusing on tumour biology and the development of targeted drugs such as monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors. A pioneer in the field of immuno-PET and TKI-PET imaging, as well as photo immunodetection, his techniques are now globally employed in both pharmaceutical development and academic research.

In 2002, he was appointed as full professor in head and neck oncology. Since 2006, he has also led radiochemistry at the Radio Nuclide Center, which is now named Tracer Center Amsterdam. In 2012 prof. dr. van Dongen became full professor at the Department of Radiology & Nuclear Medicine and later became vice-chair of this department in 2016. He has held and still holds several national and international positions in science and technology management.

Prof. dr. van Dongen was a project leader for the construction of the 80 million euro Amsterdam UMC Imaging Center, where he was the managing director. He maintains collaborations with biotech, pharma, and imaging companies worldwide. Having led the development of over 40 antibody conjugates in licensed GMP facilities, he has overseen numerous first-in-man studies. His scholarly contributions include nearly 20 supervised PhD projects, authorship of ~250 peer-reviewed papers, several patents, and involvement in pharmaceutical companies. Currently, he is Chief Scientific Officer at LinXis Biopharmaceuticals, a company that focuses on diagnosis and therapy of fibrosis and fibrotic tumours.

In 2023 prof. Dr. Van Dongen received the Amsterdam Impact Award for the development and global distribution of new imaging techniques to visualize the behaviour of medicines in the body at molecular level. Link to video . A podcast on this topic can be found here .

Activities

  • Chief Scientific Officer at LinXis Pharmaceuticals.
  • Professor at the Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Amsterdam UMC.
  • Managing Director of the Amsterdam UMC Imaging Center.
  • Member of the supervisory board of Cyclotron BV.
  • Several national and international positions in science and technology management.