The winners of this award are the group behind the research project Guardians and Caretakers of the Genome based at the Erasmus MC and the research group Social Educational Neuroscience Amsterdam (SENSA) of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. They each receive a cash prize of 1.2 million euros which they will use to explore new areas of research. Oncode Investigators Jurgen Marteijn, Wim Vermeulen, Roland Kanaar, Jan Hoeijmakers and Miao-Ping Chien are part of the Erasmus MC research project.

The Rotterdam research group Guardians and Caretakers of the Genome, winner in the field of Natural Sciences, has been focusing for years on the question of how cells in the body repair DNA. Its research has led to many groundbreaking discoveries, including that a faltering DNA repair system can lead not only to mutations and cancer, but also to accelerated ageing. Now, however, a new, ambitious step awaits: researching how orderly DNA repair processes can emerge from the apparent chaos of random interactions between molecules. The Rotterdam team is special because whilst it is conducting truly fundamental research, its discoveries may, in the longer term, advance not only science, but also medicine. Roland Kanaar, head of the Molecular Genetics department at Erasmus MC and Oncode Investigator, reflected: “Erasmus MC supports and trusts teams carrying out fundamental research driven by curiosity, in our case into how DNA repair works. This award is recognition that what we are doing has wider support, outside the university, and we value it as an appreciation of our work as a team. It is, of course, particularly pleasing that our fundamental discoveries may point the way to the better prevention and treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer.”