Matt van de Rijn, MD, PhD, received both of his degrees from the University of Amsterdam, the latter based on his research at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, he completed his residency training in surgical pathology and joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1998 he returned to Stanford where he is now a Professor in Pathology. His research has focused on sarcoma, and he reported the first major gene expression profiling study on sarcomas in 2002. The identification of a novel translocation involving CSF1 in PVNS resulted in several ongoing clinical trials. In addition, his group discovered a novel diagnostic marker for GIST (DOG1). Gene expression profiling studies also led to the investigation of the role of macrophages in leiomyosarcoma (LMS) and GIST with an opportunity to develop therapeutic targets for these tumors. In addition to his work on LMS and GIST he has performed gene expression profiling studies on Desmoid Tumors to study the biology that underlies the aggressive behavior of these tumors, to develop novel diagnostic markers and discover novel therapeutic targets.
Dr. van de Rijn is the principal investigator of the DTRF-funded study, “Next generation sequencing approach to desmoid tumors.”
