Personal Details/Academic Background

 

Born in 1952 in the Netherlands, Ronald Wanders is a medical biochemist. He is currently:

 

Responsibilities and Assignments

 

Research and Achievements

 

Professor Wanders had a leading role in the clinical and biochemical identification and/or genetic characterization of many peroxisomal disorders, lysosomal storage disorders, cholesterol biosynthesis and phospholipid metabolism and mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation disorders.

 

He has not only discovered new disorders, with their biochemical and molecular genetic basis, but has also advanced the understanding of the biology of peroxisomes by elucidating peroxisomal metabolism and enzymology using inborn errors as experiments with which to gain understanding of peroxisomal biogenesis and metabolism. He has also worked on mitochondrial metabolism, most importantly on fatty acid oxidation but many other pathways as well such as cholesterol biosynthesis, phospholipid metabolism, lysosomal storage metabolism and related disorders.

 

His work has been of fundamental importance for the understanding of the function of peroxisomes, enzymatic pathways within the mitochondria, and other biochemical groups.

 

He has developed a large number of novel and technically challenging biochemical assays as well as other cellular and molecular assays including complementation assays for the diagnosis of peroxisomal disorders.

 

Professional Milestones

 

Professor Wanders has kept together a large team and has made possible the laboratory diagnosis of an extensive number of different conditions, developing therefore his laboratory as a center of excellence for the laboratory diagnosis of these disorders. It has now become the principal laboratory for the investigation and diagnosis of peroxisomal disorders, and also a world centre also for the investigation of lysosomal disorders, fatty acid oxidation defects, cholesterol biosynthesis and phospholipid metabolism.

 

This wide range of biochemical tests are now regularly requested by clinicians world-wide, and as such has had an important impact on the health of a large number of patients in many countries. His laboratory service was central in developing fruitful collaborations with scientists and clinicians around the world

 

The work in his laboratory has been extended by the development of mouse models, leading to the investigation and the translation of laboratory findings to clinical applications and treatment strategies.

 

Awards and Recognition

 

In recognition of his outstanding contributions for a large number of inherited metabolic disorders, including peroxisomal disorders, lysosomal disorders, fatty acid oxidation defects, cholesterol biosynthesis and phospholipid metabolism, Professor Ronald Wanders is awarded the Hamdan Award for Medical Research Excellence for Inborn Errors of Metabolism for the 2011-2012 term.