Our research aims to improve our understanding of cell division control in the context of animal development.

We focus our efforts in two directions, which relate to the questions:

• How can cells divide asymmetrically to form daughter cells with different fates? 
• How are cell proliferation and differentiation coordinated during animal development?

To address these questions, we use a multi-disciplinary approach which combines genetics and life imaging in the animal model Caenorhabditis elegans with gene-expression profiling, mass spectrometry analysis and experiments with cells in tissue culture.

While this research starts from a fundamental question, our results are relevant to the fields of cancer biology and regenerative medicine.

Sander van den Heuvel received several competitive grants and academic prizes, including: 

• Grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for studies of asymmetric cell division (RO1,1999), for studies of developmental control of cell-cycle entry (RO1, 2001), and for the use of C. elegans in the discovery of cancer related genes (PO1, 2002). 
• AstraZenica’s Academic Sponsorship Award (2003). 
• The Basil O’Connor award from the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation (1999). 
• The Alexander and Margaret Stewart Trust Award (1999). 
• The New Investigator Award, from The Medical Foundation (1998). 
• The Helen Hay Whitney Foundation, Postdoctoral Fellowship (1992).