Hans Clevers became famous with his stem-cell research into healthy and sick intestines. The inner coating of the intestine, the epithelium, is renewed once every 4-5 days. At the same time, intestinal stem cells produce new cells at a high rate. This enormous production of cells makes the intestine sensitive to the development of cancer. Clevers discovered in 1997 how a derailment of this normal cell production results in the formation of polyps, an early stage of cancer. Building on this, his research group identified the intestinal stem cell and developed methods to grow these stem cells in a laboratory into 'mini intestines' (organoids).

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Clevers group - Hubrecht Institute