Lennart Kester

Lennart Kester is an associate group leader at the Princess Máxima Center focused on advancing nanopore sequencing for rapid, clinically actionable cancer diagnostics. His work centers on real-time analysis of sparse methylation profiles for tumor classification, he was involved in the development of Sturgeon, a deep learning–based framework for intraoperative brain tumor diagnosis (Nature, 2023). In addition to CNS tumors, he has developed classification tools for solid tumors and is now developing nanopore-based approaches for leukemia diagnostics, aiming to enable fast and comprehensive molecular characterization directly from patient samples. His research also explores comprehensive genomic profiling using nanopore sequencing, integrating methylation based classification, structural variation detection, and mutation detection within a single assay. Through these efforts, he aims to reduce diagnostic turnaround times from weeks to hours and bring fully integrated, real-time genomics into clinical practice.