Hans V. Westerhoff
Hans V. Westerhoff obtained his PhD by researching non-equilibrium thermodynamics of biological free energy transduction at the University of Amsterdam (Karel van Dam). He then did postdocs at the University of Padova (Azzone) and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland (Hill, Gellert, Hendler), working further on Metabolic and Hierarchical Control Analysis, stochastic free energy transduction, DNA supercoiling, antimicrobial peptides (magainins) and enzyme cooperativity. He returned to the Netherlands’ Cancer Institute to work on multidrug resistance. From there he became full professor at the University of Amsterdam, at the Free University Amsterdam, as well as at the University of Manchester, where he led the doctoral training center as well as the research center on Systems Biology. In 2024 he spent a sabbatical at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study.
His research interest focuses on Systems Biology, i.e., on how through nonlinear interactions molecular processes lead to the emergence of the properties that characterize and enable Life. The complexity of the topic requires precise quantitative experimental assays, mathematical analyses of their results, as well as theoretical derivations of fundamental principles that govern biology, medicine, chemistry and physics. Together with Lilia Alberghina, he edited a book on the philosophy and definition of Systems Biology. Recent attention has turned to fundamental thermodynamics for Biology, noise in gene expression, the use of genome wide metabolic maps in dealing with inborn errors of metabolism, and the importance of asocialness in the emergence of tumors.
Affiliations:
- Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Amsterdam Institute for Molecules, Medicines and Systems, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1108, 1081 HZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK
- Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Sciencepark 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies (STIAS), Wallenberg Research Centre at Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa