Piet Borst facts for kids

Piet Borst CBE (born 5 July 1934, in Amsterdam) is emeritus professor of clinical biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Amsterdam (UVA), and until 1999 director of research and chairman of the board of directors of the Netherlands Cancer Institute and the Antoni van Leeuwenhoekziekenhuis (NKI-AVL). He continued to work at the NKI-AVL as a staff member and group leader until 2016.

Career

Piet Borst studied medicine in Amsterdam from 1952 to 1958 and completed his internships in 1961-1962. He received his PhD for an investigation of tumor mitochondria (Supervisor Edward Slater).

He then moved to New York City, where he worked with fellow post-doc Charles Weissmann on replication of bacteriophages in the lab of Nobel laureate Severo Ochoa at the New York University School of Medicine. In 1965, he became professor of Biochemistry at the University of Amsterdam and head of the section for Medical Enzymology and Molecular Biology of the Biochemistry Department. From 1972 to 1980 Borst was also part-time Director of the Institute of Animal Physiology of the University of Amsterdam where he set up the first Unit for Molecular Biology on the Biology Campus.

In 1983 Borst moved to the Netherlands Cancer Institute - Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital where he became director of research and in 1987 also chairman. He retained an honorary professorship at the University of Amsterdam. After his mandatory retirement in 1999, Borst became a staff member and continued running his lab, studying mechanisms of chemotherapy resistance in cancer cells, the physiological functions of drug transporters and the biosynthesis and function of DNA Base J, a new base in DNA that had been discovered in trypanosomes by his research group.

Borst contributed to discussions about science and science policy in the Netherlands: In the seventies he was spokesman for science in the rather virulent discussions on recombinant-DNA experiments; as a director of the cancer institute he regularly reported on advances in cancer research/treatment in the press and on radio/TV; he was a member of the Innovation Platform, a small thinktank of the Dutch prime-minister; and for 23 years he wrote a monthly column in the prime intellectual daily, the NRC Handelsblad.

His doctoral students include Jan Hoeijmakers.

Major international organisational functions

• 1978 – 1984 Elected member EMBO Council (1982 – 1984 vice-president)
• 1985 – 1991 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the EMBL in Heidelberg, Germany. (1988 – 1991 President)
• 1986 – 1990 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Basel Institute for Immunology, Switzerland
• 1986 – 1993 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna, Austria
• 1991 – 2004 Member of the Scientific Committee of the Foundation Louis Jeantet, Genève, de jury of the Louis Jeantet Prize (since 1997 President of the jury), Switzerland
• 1992 – 1998 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), Lausanne, Switzerland
• 1994 – 2000 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Londen, GB
• 1999 – 2005 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie, Heidelberg, Germany
• 2000 – 2005 Member of the External Scientific and Strategic Committee (CEOSS) of the Institute Pasteur, Paris, France (since 2004 also chairman)
• 2000 – 2006 Member Supervisory Board Schering A.G., Berlin, Germany
• 2004 – 2008 Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Fritz-Lipmann Institut, Jena, Germany
• 2005 – 2012 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the London Research Institute, London, United Kingdom
• 2005 – 2012 Member of the Board of Scientific Governors of The Scripps Research Institute, USA
• 2013 – 2016 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Research Institute for the Biology of Ageing (ERIBA), Groningen, The Netherlands

Royal distinctions

• 1999 Commander in the Order of the Netherlands Lion
• 2007 Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)

Scientific awards

• 1981 Royal Dutch/Shell-prize for the Life Sciences (Netherlands)
• 1984 Paul-Ehrlich und Ludwig-Darmstaedter Prize, Germany (shared with Prof. George Cross)
• 1984 F.M.V.V. Prize of the Dutch Federation of Medical Scientific Societies
• 1989 Howard Taylor Ricketts Award of the University of Chicago, USA
• 1990 Dr. G. Wander award of the Wander Foundation in Bern, Switzerland
• 1990 Gold medal of the Genootschap voor Natuur-, Genees- en Heelkunde in Amsterdam
• 1992 Dr. H.P. Heineken prize for biochemistry and biophysics of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences
• 1992 Gold medal of the Robert Koch Foundation in Cologne, Germany
• 1993 Prof.dr P. Muntendam prize of the Dutch Cancer Society
• 1999 Silver Medal of merit of the City of Amsterdam
• 1999 Medal of the University of Amsterdam for exceptional contributions to the university
• 2000 Hamilton Fairley Award for Clinical Research, European Society for Medical Oncology, Hamburg.
• 2007 The distinguished Service Award, awarded at the Miami Nature Biotechnology Winter Symposium, Miami Beach, Florida, USA.
• 2010 Gebroeders Bruinsma Erepenning van de Nederlandse Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij, Amsterdam.

Membership of academics

• 1978 Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 1983 De Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen
• 1986 Foreign Member of the Royal Society
• 1989 Academia Europaea
• 1991 Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, United States
• 1995 International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, United States
• 2009 Fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences

Discoveries of Borst and collaborators

1. The malate-aspartate shuttle (“Borst cycle”), a new major route for the transport of reducing equivalents from cytosol to mitochondria (1).
2. Bacteriophage RNA replicase keeps the template and daughter strand separated during RNA synthesis; duplex RNA is not an intermediate in RNA synthesis, but an isolation artifact (2).
3. Mammalian mitochondrial DNA consists of small duplex circles (3) that are identical in sequence, as proven by quantitative DNA renaturation experiments (4). It follows that the bulk of mitochondrial proteins is not encoded in mitochondrial DNA, but must be imported.
4. Development of ethidium-agarose electrophoresis (5) (for the separation of DNA topoisomers); proof that linear DNA molecules move like snakes through the gel (5).
5. The glycosome, a new peroxisome-like organelle that contains the glycolytic enzyme system in trypanosomes and related uni-cellular parasites (6).
6. Mitochondrial genes of the yeast Saccharomyces may contain introns (7) (8).
7. A DNA transposition mechanism for antigenic variation in African trypanosomes (9) (10) (11) (12).
8. Transsplicing as an essential step in the synthesis of all trypanosome mRNAs (13) (14) (15) (16, 17).
9. Growth and contraction of chromosome ends, the telomeres (18); trypanosome telomeres end in repeats of (GGGTTA)n (19) later also found in human telomeres.
10. Introduction of PFG electrophoresis for the separation of chromosome-sized DNA molecules of several protozoa (20) (21).
11. The first prenatal test for the Zellweger syndrome, a deadly inborn error of peroxisome biosynthesis (22).
12. Protective physiological functions of drug-transporting P-glycoproteins (ABCB1), i.a. in the blood-brain barrier (23) and in the gut (oral availability of drugs) (24) (25).
13. Proof that the Mdr2/MDR3 (ABCB4) P-glycoprotein is a phosphatidylcholine translocator, essential for bile formation (26).
14. Identification of the first ABC-transporter in a protozoal parasite, Leishmania, the PGP-A gene (now LtpgpA). This transporter gene is associated with arsenite resistance and is surrounded by direct and inverted DNA repeats facilitating gene amplification (27) (28) (29). This was the first representative of the ABCC class of transporters. Later Ouellette showed in his own lab that LtpgpA is an arsenite-GSH transporter involved in antimony resistance in patients.
15. J, a new base in the DNA of trypanosomes and related parasites (30) (31).
16. Variation in the transferrin receptor allows African trypanosomes to efficiently take up transferrin in a range of mammals, notwithstanding the rapid evolution of mammalian transferrins (32) (33).
17. Biosynthesis of base J (34) and identification of J as an essential termination signal in RNA synthesis in Leishmania (35).
18. The MRP (ABCC) family of drug transporters has multiple members (36) (37) (38). Identification of new endogenous substrates for MRP3 (ABCC3) and BCRP (ABCG2): phyto-estrogen conjugates (39) (40); MRP4 (ABCC4): prostaglandins (41); and MRP5 (ABCC5): N-lactoyl-amino acids, a novel metabolites of mammals (42), and glutamate-conjugates (43).
19. The first mouse tumor model suitable for studying mechanisms of primary and acquired resistance against drugs used to treat cancer patients (44) (45) (46).
20. Identification of new factors inhibiting DNA end resection, REV7 (47) and HELB (48), contributing to drug resistance in a mouse mammary tumor model.
21. Identification of the Volume-Regulation Anion Channel, as a contributor to uptake of Pt-based anti-cancer drugs in cells (49).
22. Pseudoxanthoma elasticum, an inborn error of calcification due to absence of MRP6 (ABCC6) in the liver, is caused by low plasma pyrophosphate (PPi). MRP6 mediates ATP export from cells and this is rapidly converted into PPi (binding calcium) by ectonucleotidases (50, 51).