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T32 Surgical Oncology »  Faculty Mentors »  Regulatory Sciences »  Laura Van 'T Veer, PhD
Laura Van

Laura Van 'T Veer, PhD

  • Professor, Laboratory Medicine Associate Director Applied Genomics

Contact Information

2340 Sutter Street, #N415
San Francisco, CA 94115
Phone: 415-476-6023
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  Institution  
  Degree    
  Dept or School    
  End Date    
  • University of Leiden, Leiden, Netherlands
  • PhD
  • Medicine, Oncogene Activation and Tumorigenesis
  • 1989
  • University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • MSc
  • Experimental Oncology
  • 1984
  • University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • BSc
  • Biology, Molecular Oncology
  • 1980
  • Laura van ‘t Veer, PhD is Professor of Laboratory Medicine is the Program Leader of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center Breast Oncology Program (BOP), Director of Applied Genomics with the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and UCSF-Site Principal Investigator of the Athena Breast Health Network.

    Dr. van ‘t Veer is a world renowned Molecular Biologist and inventor of MammaPrint®. A recent publication in the New England Journal of Medicine on the MINDACT trial shows that 46% of breast cancer patients who are clinically high risk and are therefor considered for chemotherapy, can safely forgo this treatment based on a Low Risk MammaPrint result (NEJM 2016, Aug 25).
    Dr. van 't Veer's research focuses on personalized medicine, to advance patient management based on knowledge of the genetic make-up of the tumor as well as the genetic make-up of the patient. This allows clinicians to optimally assign systemic therapy for those patients in need of such treatment, and to ensure the selection of the therapy that is most effective. Dr. van ‘t Veer's research shows that molecular diagnostics and microarray genomics technology increasingly impact patient management. Molecular genomics contributes to the knowledge of who is at risk for breast cancer, how external factors may influence this risk, whether breast tumors are likely to metastasize or not, and which subtype of tumors will likely respond to what therapy. Her current research, involving genomics data from various types, is aimed to understand the molecular basis for early response to therapy as a surrogate for outcome prediction.

    Dr. van ‘t Veer is the Biomarker Committee Chair for the Foundation of NIH sponsored multicenter adaptive clinical trial I-SPY 2, overseeing the processes for FDA-IDE biomarker usage and qualifying biomarker companion diagnostic testing. She served 2010-2014 as Board member of the American Association of Cancer Research. She has over 230 peer-reviewed scientific articles and is co-inventor of 6 patents. Dr. van 't Veer received the 2007 European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) life-time achievement award for translational research in breast cancer and the prestigious European Union Women Innovator Award, 2nd prize in 2014.

    Dr. van ‘t Veer received undergraduate training in biology and a master of science in molecular oncology (1984) at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. She earned her PhD in Medicine for a dissertation on oncogene activation and tumorigenesis in 1989 at the University of Leiden. She then completed two postdoctoral fellowships, first at the Cancer Center of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston (1989-1991), followed by the Division of Molecular Carcinogenesis at The Netherlands Cancer Institute (1992-1993). She then joined The Netherlands Cancer Institute as a Molecular Biologist in the Department of Pathology. At the institute she assumed increasing responsibilities, starting with the initiation and leadership of the Departments of Molecular Pathology and Genetic Counseling, culminating with her appointment as the Head of Diagnostic Oncology, overseeing the clinical work and associated research. In 2003 she was one of the founders of the Netherlands Cancer Institute spin-off, the molecular profiling company Agendia. Concurrent to her employment at The Netherlands Cancer Institute Dr. van ‘t Veer served as the Chief Operating Officer from 2002-2007 and as the Chief Research Officer from 2007-2014 for Agenda NV, a company she founded in Amsterdam to make her scientific discoveries available to clinicians for patient use. MammaPrint® obtained the first FDA 510K ‘In Vitro Diagnostic Multigene Index Assay' (IVDMIA) clearance in 2007, and is included in several international and national guidelines for breast cancer management.

    After a 2008-2009 appointment as Visiting Associate Professor at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Cancer Center, Dr. van ‘t Veer moved to UCSF as Professor of Laboratory Medicine in 2010 and assumed leadership of the Bay Area Breast Cancer SPORE and the BOP. In 2011 she assumed leadership of the Athena Breast Health Network at UCSF. She holds the Angela and Shu Kai Chan Endowed Chair in Cancer Research. She has established at UCSF a Laboratory for Applied Genomics that is CLIA licensed and provides a robust infrastructure and testing incubator lab for new molecular diagnostics of cancer.
      Award  
      Confired By    
      Date    
  • European Inventor Award 2015
  • European Patent Office (EPO)
  • 2015
  • Second Prize, European Union Prize for Women Innovators
  • European Union Prize for Women Innovators
  • 2014
  • AACC Outstanding Speaker Award
  • AACC
  • 2012
  • First Annual Harry and Edith Gladstein Award,
  • Indiana University, School of Medicine
  • 2009
  • Breast Cancer Research Fund (BCRF-Pink Ribbon US) grant award
  • Breast Cancer Research Fund
  • 2007 - 2011
  • Lifetime Achievement Award for Translational Research in Breast Cancer
  • European Society Medical Oncology (ESMO)
  • 2007
  • Van der Scheuren award lecture for European Breast Cancer Research
  • EBCC5
  • 2006
  • Medal of Honor
  • International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) , Lyon, France
  • 2005
  • Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • The Irvington Institute for Medical Research, New York, USA
  • 1991 - 1994
  • Long-term Fellowship
  • NWO The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, 's-Gravenhage, The Netherlands
  • 1989 - 1990
  • Regulatory Sciences, Co-lead: Dr. van ‘t Veer is a world-renowned molecular biologist and inventor of the MammaPrint 70-gene test that is FDA approved to assess risk of recurrence in breast cancer. Her research focuses on personalized medicine, aiming to advance patient management based on knowledge of the genetic makeup of the tumor as well as the genetic makeup of the patient. Dr. van ‘t Veer has successfully trained over 25 pre-doctorate students, 11 predoctorates and 21 postdoctoral fellows including surgical residents and fellows.

    Opportunities for translational research projects in Dr. van ‘t Veer's lab include the molecular prognosis and response prediction of breast cancer patients by state-of-the art bioinformatics and statistics tools, based on a wealth of available data from the I-SPY2 and the MINDACT trial as well as other relevant clinical studies. Molecular data include RNA expression, DNA mutation and protein activity data. Trainees will have the opportunity to work on getting biomarkers for tumor characterization qualified by the FDA for use within the I-SPY2 randomization engine.

    Data provided by UCSF Profiles, powered by CTSI
    • Strategy for combining circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of tumor burden for prediction of response and outcome in neoadjuvant-treated early breast cancer
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      Dec 2020
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      Nov 2025
      Principal Investigator
    • Center for Big Data in Translational Genomics
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      Sep 2014
      -
      Aug 2021
      Co-Principal Investigator
    • Integrative signaling models to decipher complex cancer phenotypes
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      Funding Period:
      Aug 2012
      -
      Jul 2017
      Co-Principal Investigator
    • Leukocyte Biomarkers for Predicting Human Breast Cancer Outcomes
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      Sep 2011
      -
      Jul 2017
      Co-Principal Investigator
    • SPORE in Breast Cancer
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      Sep 1992
      -
      Nov 2013
      Principal Investigator
    MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM A TOTAL OF 63
    Data provided by UCSF Profiles, powered by CTSI
    1. Hiatt RA, Sibley A, Fejerman L, Glantz S, Nguyen T, Pasick R, Palmer N, Perkins A, Potter MB, Somsouk M, Vargas RA, van 't Veer LJ, Ashworth A. The San Francisco Cancer Initiative: A Community Effort To Reduce The Population Burden Of Cancer. Health Aff (Millwood). 2018 01; 37(1):54-61. View in PubMed
    2. Viale G, de Snoo FA, Slaets L, Bogaerts J, van 't Veer L, Rutgers EJ, Piccart-Gebhart MJ, Stork-Sloots L, Glas A, Russo L, Dell'Orto P, Tryfonidis K, Litière S, Cardoso F, MINDACT investigators. Immunohistochemical versus molecular (BluePrint and MammaPrint) subtyping of breast carcinoma. Outcome results from the EORTC 10041/BIG 3-04 MINDACT trial. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2018 01; 167(1):123-131. View in PubMed
    3. Bartelink IH, Prideaux B, Krings G, Wilmes L, Lee PRE, Bo P, Hann B, Coppé JP, Heditsian D, Swigart-Brown L, Jones EF, Magnitsky S, Keizer RJ, de Vries N, Rosing H, Pawlowska N, Thomas S, Dhawan M, Aggarwal R, Munster PN, Esserman LJ, Ruan W, Wu AHB, Yee D, Dartois V, Savic RM, Wolf DM, van 't Veer L. Heterogeneous drug penetrance of veliparib and carboplatin measured in triple negative breast tumors. Breast Cancer Res. 2017 Sep 11; 19(1):107. View in PubMed
    4. Severson TM, Wolf DM, Yau C, Peeters J, Wehkam D, Schouten PC, Chin SF, Majewski IJ, Michaut M, Bosma A, Pereira B, Bismeijer T, Wessels L, Caldas C, Bernards R, Simon IM, Glas AM, Linn S, van 't Veer L. The BRCA1ness signature is associated significantly with response to PARP inhibitor treatment versus control in the I-SPY 2 randomized neoadjuvant setting. Breast Cancer Res. 2017 Aug 25; 19(1):99. View in PubMed
    5. van 't Veer LJ, Yau C, Yu NY, Benz CC, Nordenskjöld B, Fornander T, Stål O, Esserman LJ, Lindström LS. Tamoxifen therapy benefit for patients with 70-gene signature high and low risk. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2017 Nov; 166(2):593-601. View in PubMed
    6. View All Publications

     

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