2018 NVBMB PRIZE FOR TINEKE LENSTRA

The 2018 NVBMB prize has been awarded to Dr. Tineke Lenstra of the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam. Dr. Lenstra received a personal TOPtalent grant from NWO in 2008 to pursue her PhD studies at the University of Utrecht. She obtained her PhD degree (cum laude) in 2012, and then moved to The National Institutes of Health in the US for postdoctoral research funded by prestigious personal grants from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO long term fellowship) and the Koningin Wilhelmina Fonds (KWF). She returned to The Netherlands in 2016 when she was appointed as a junior group leader in the Netherlands Cancer Institute.

Supported by an ERC starting grant Dr. Lenstra now studies the dynamics and regulation of transcription in living cells. In particular, she focusses on the phenomenon of transcriptional bursts, in which RNA is discontinuously produced. The aim of Dr Lenstra’s work is to unravel the molecular mechanisms underlying burst-like production of RNA, and its cellular function, both of which are currently unknown. She uses her background in genome-wide cellular analysis of transcription in yeast, obtained during her PhD studies, and her expertise with single molecule visualization, acquired during her postdoctoral work, for this highly original line of research. The jury rates Dr. Lenstra as a very talented molecular biologist with an excellent track record and international reputation.