Wistar Collaboration with LUMC to Advance Research Education

November 14, 2019

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Wistar’s VP of Institutional Advancement Dr. Anita Pepper met with Dutch dignitaries and scientific and academic leaders in the Netherlands to formally endorse the Wistar-Schoemaker International Postdoctoral Fellowship in partnership with Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), to bring recent Ph.D. graduates trained at LUMC to Wistar to advance their research education.

This program will expand the Institute’s international partnerships in research and education and promote scientific exchange between investigators in the Netherlands and the United States, opening new opportunities for global collaboration.

The Wistar-Schoemaker Fellowship honors the legacy and accomplishments of the late Dr. Hubert J.P. Schoemaker, a visionary pioneer in biotechnology and a native of the Netherlands, who was the co-founder of Centocor, now Janssen Biologics, with Dr. Hilary Koprowski, Dr. Vincent Zurawski, and Michael Wall. Centocor was located in the Philadelphia suburbs and advanced the Institute’s seminal research in monoclonal antibodies into a commercial platform, becoming one of the most exciting biotechnology companies of the late 1980s and 1990s.

Schoemaker also built Centocor facilities in the Netherlands in what is now the Leiden Bio Science Park, one of the top five science parks in Europe that today hosts LUMC.

The Wistar-Schoemaker International Postdoctoral Fellowship is set to reprise the historical collaboration between Wistar and the Dutch biomedical research arena, and was inspired by Schoemaker’s passion for mentoring the next generation of scientific leaders.

In a homecoming of sorts, Dr. Schoemaker’s wife Anne accompanied Dr. Pepper during the visit to Leiden. Mrs. Schoemaker was instrumental in the process of establishing the Wistar-LUMC partnership and the Fellowship.

Caption: Dr. Pancras Hogendoorn, dean of the Leiden University Medical Center, and Wistar’s Dr. Pepper at the official ceremony to sign off on the Wistar-Schoemaker International Postdoctoral Fellowship.