A personal touch of Elmar Pieterse

19 April 2018

My name is Elmar Pieterse, I’m Dutch and currently work as an internist-in-training (Rijnstate hospital) and postdoctoral researcher at the department of nephrology (Radboudumc), theme Renal disorders.

When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up? Can you tell us something about your child years. 

Growing up in Friesland, my childhood was all about fierljeppen and keatsen. When the tragic realization came that I wouldn’t be able to make a living from fierljeppen or keatsen, I aimed for a career in which my fascination for human biology had a central place.

What was your previous academic training, where did you study and why that study? 

I studied medicine at the Radboud University and finished my studies by the end of last year. I currently hold a position as internist-in-training at the Rijnstate hospital. At the end of my bachelor, I performed a research internship in Erlangen (Germany) for 6 months, which was part of the Honours program for medical students. I continued with this research (department of nephrology, Radboudumc) throughout my clinical rotations (co-schappen) and, although being a huge time investment combining both, I managed to defend my thesis last year.

The RIMLS motto is “Today’s molecules for tomorrow’s medicine”. What does this mean for you? 

RIMLS’ motto is all about translational research. As an internist-in-training, I am predominantly being trained to diagnose and treat diseases while little attention is paid to the molecular mechanisms that actually lead to the disease the patient in front of you has. Nothing is, however, as valuable as being able to translate clinical problems into fundamental research questions to further decipher the molecular mechanisms of a disease and to identify possible targets for therapeutics. Only then healthcare will continue improving.

Who is your great example as scientists? And please give a motivation why.

Stephen Hawking, who sadly passed away recently. I have a lot of respect for people who are so dedicated and who, regardless their limitations or disabilities, follow their passion to achieve the goals they’ve set for themselves. 

Which research discovery that you have made has made you most proud? 

My scientific career so far has focused on neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), which are important structures for antimicrobial defense but at the same time also deleterious in different disease settings. NETs can be formed through different molecular pathways, which makes the identification of appropriate drugable molecules to prevent NETs from being formed a challenge. We have recently developed a tool to measure and characterize NETs in biological fluids. We are capable of linking the characterization of NETs to the pathway through which they have been formed in vivo. We applied this tool in different NET-associated diseases, and found vast heterogeneity in NET-forming pathways in different diseases. Thus, this highlights the need for disease-specific strategies to prevent NET-mediated pathology. This research perfectly fits RIMLS’ motto, as it has a great translational impact.

Given unlimited finance what experiment would you perform?

Great novel ideas always come when the circumstances are right. While writing this on a rainy sunday morning, the circumstances are far from ideal. Therefore, the first expenditure will be to build a new laboratory on the Bahamas, a place where the sun hardly sets down, and the rest will then follow.

What does your working area (desk, office) look like and what does it say about you (or your research)?

It’s a structured mess, and that fits me perfectly!

Nominate a colleague to be in the spotlight and what would you like to ask him or her?

Julia van Tuijl, to pipet or to auscultate?

You are nominated by Lucas Bernts. His question for you is: Elmar Pieterse, when can we start clinical trials with NETs as a target in SLE patients?

Your answer is: Many fundamental questions regarding the biology of NETs remain obscure and it is therefore too early to think about clinical trials. As NETs also fulfill important physiological functions (e.g. in antimicrobial defense, in shaping immune responses), it is first mandatory to identify in which patients NETs are more harmful than beneficial. Especially in a heterogeneous disease as SLE, the inhibition of NET formation is likely to only be beneficial in a subset of patients. These issues need to be addressed first. Haste is never a good thing, especially not when translating laboratory findings to real patients.

What type of person are you, quick insights:

a) Mac or PC?                                : PC
b) Theater or cinema?                 : Cinema
c) Dine out or dine in?                 : Dine out (no dishes)
d) Ferrari or Fiat?                         : Bicycle
e) Shopaholic or chocoholic?     : None
f) Culture or Nature                     : Nature
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