Cisca Wijmenga receives prestigious genetics award

Prof. dr. Cisca Wijmenga has been awarded the 2019 award of European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG). She receives the prize for her pioneering work in developing and applying innovative systems genetics approaches towards understanding complex diseases such as celiac disease and type 2 diabetes. Her research and the results are recognized as major breakthroughs in human genetics.

In her prize lecture on Tuesday June 18^th, she took pleasure in describing the scientific adventure she took that led her from complex disease genetics with a focus on coeliac disease, to the gut microbiome and “the really cool work we just started on gut-on-a-chip to recreate coeliac disease on a chip. With that in place, in future we can study the interaction between host genome, epithelial barrier, immune system and the gut microbiome.”

The ESHG award lecture is given each year at the end of the conference by a European top scientist working in a field related to human genetics. Previous ESHG award laureates include Stylianos Antonarakis, Veronica von Heyningen, Sir Alec Jeffreys, Svante Paabo and Edith Heard.

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