The Lonely Pipette : helping scientists do better science

TLP #30 : Don't hypothesize, just observe - Hans Clevers

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This month Hans Clevers talks to us about his productive career and his pioneering work on organoid technologies.

Hans admits that he initially found biology frustrating and disappointing

  • But then he learnt to enjoy the rare spark of excitement from discoveries
  • He managed to get his PhD in just one year!
  • You need to trust yourself and learn to share with others
  • Hans warns new group leaders not to expect too much from younger colleagues
  • It’s important to give your students their own space
  • He paints a metaphoric image of research - Push against the dark wall until the window opens on a new valley
  • His search for stem cells in the gut led his lab to develop organoid approaches and 3D culture technologies
  • Hans describes his unexpected move to Roche and “large pharma”
  • He describes his role bridging the gap between scientists and industry leadership
  • Hans talks about the benefits of interacting with artists
  • He warns about being too attached to your hypothesis and the importance of being wrong


He mentioned these labs, institutions and companies

Roche Pharma R&D (pRED):  https://www.roche.com/innovation/structure/pred
Utrecht University : https://www.uu.nl/en
Dana Farber Cancer Institute :  https://www.dana-farber.org/
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences : https://www.knaw.nl/en
Cox Terhorst :  https://immunologyphd.hms.harvard.edu/people/cox-terhorst

To find out more about Hans visit these links   
X-Twitter https://x.com/hansclevers?lang=en
Hubrecht Institute
https://www.hubrecht.eu
https://www.hubrecht.eu/research-groups/clevers-group/
Wikipedia page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Clevers
Utrecht University
https://www.uu.nl/staff/JCClevers
Google Scholar
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jTAHhTQAAAAJ&hl=en

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More about the soundtrack :
Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/