After many years of clinical activities as first a large animal surgeon and later an exclusively equine surgeon, René van Weeren is now almost exclusively occupied by research activities and the supervision of PhD students, apart from administrative duties. Special areas of interest are the influences of exercise on the (development of) the musculoskeletal system, research on joint homeostasis and cartilage regeneration, tendons and biomechanics. He enjoys working in these areas within a translational framework togther with the colleagues from human medicine and as part of large (international) collaborative networks. He is of the opinion that in these activities the coaching of young people and helping them to find develop themselves as critical, independent and truly academic researchers is the most rewarding aspect. 

Beginning of the career
The drive for René van Weeren to become a vet probably originates from the family holidays he enjoyed as a kid in a rural region in the eastern part of the Netherlands ("De Achterhoek") in the 1960s, where he participated for years in the activities of the small-scale farming of those days. The red line in his career, a broad interest for research with focus on international collaboration, may stem from the inspiring and intellectually challenging environment of the high school he attended (St. Francis High School, Rotterdam) and the experiences of his 7-month stay in Mozambique as a final year student.

Further
Being a rather prolific writer himself, he likes the editing of papers and he is also an avid reader of "real" (i.e. non-scientific) literature.