About
Introduction
Tamar studied medicine in Antwerp (Belgium), spent two years at Harvard Medical School for his PhD, and returned to finish his residency in dermatology. Since 2005 affiliated with Erasmus MC. Tamar has established a dermato-epidemiology group at the department of dermatology Erasmus MC resulting in a full professorship in dermatology in 2014 when he became chair of the department. Currently, he is appointed as a honorary professor at the University of Nottingham (UK). The dermato-epidemiology research group consists of more than a dozen PhD students, several post-docs and research-oriented dermatologists. We apply (genetic) epidemiology, public health and clinical research principles on a variety of skin conditions but with a special interest in skin cancer. The goal has always been to deliver high quality research introducing new concepts and methodology aiming to affect patient care.
Field(s) of expertise
Epidemiology
Public Health
Routine data
Clinical research
Prognostic modeling
Education and career
Tamar studied medicine in Antwerp (Belgium), spent two years at Harvard Medical School for his PhD, and returned to finish his residency in dermatology. Since 2005 affiliated with Erasmus MC. Tamar has established a dermato-epidemiology group at the department of dermatology Erasmus MC resulting in a full professorship in dermatology in 2014 when he became chair of the department. Currently, he is appointed as a honorary professor at the University of Nottingham (UK).
Publications
Tamar Nijsten has published over 300 peer-reviewed international papers (H-index ~ 50).
Recent Findings
Previous studies in the lab have shown that autologous dendritic cells pulsed with allogenic tumor cell lysate was able to induce peripheral T cell activation and tumor-reactive T cell responses in patients with mesothelioma and pancreatic cancer. Current research focuses on how to initiate an effective immune response in the tumor as well as the tumor-draining lymph node using dendritic cell vaccination. Furthermore, we are studying novel approaches for (personalized) vaccination. In addition, we have identified T cell characteristics that underlie clinical efficacy of immune check inhibitors or chemotherapeutic agents in mesothelioma. The selected publications below give an impression of our work.
Teaching activities
The dermato-epidemiology research group consists of more than a dozen PhD students, several post-docs and research-oriented dermatologists.
Every two year we organize the EADV Clinical Research and Epidemiology Summer course.
Other positions
- honorary professor at the University of Nottingham (UK).
- Chair of European Dermato-Epidemiology Network (EDEN)
- Section editor Epidemiology for the Br J Dermatol
Scholarships, grants, and awards
He has received multiple grants from The Netherlands Organisation for Health research and Development (ZonMw) including a Vidi in 2010 and has worked in close collaboration with (pharmaceutical) industry on many scientific projects.