astronomy

Jacques Neefjes

Jacques Neefjes is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jacques Neefjes rather than just read about it. In short: Jacobus Jozef Cornelus Neefjes (born 8 December 1959) is a Dutch scientist who made breakthroughs in several research disciplines such as immunology, cell biology, chemistry, cancer biology, microbiology, and epidemiology. He is a professor at the Leiden University Medical Center.

Key takeaways

Jacques Neefjes belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jacques Neefjes to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jacques Neefjes from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jacobus Jozef Cornelus Neefjes (born 8 December 1959) is a Dutch scientist who made breakthroughs in several research disciplines such as immunology, cell biology, chemistry, cancer biology, microbiology, and epidemiology. He is a professor at the Leiden University Medical Center. In 2020 he was one of four winners of the Spinoza Prize.

Biography From 1979 to 1985, Jacques Neefjes studied Chemistry at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Then, he performed his Ph.D. studies at the Division of Cellular Biochemistry, in the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ploegh in Amsterdam. During his thesis, he investigated the Cell Biological Aspect of MHC class I and II molecules. He obtained his Ph.D. degree on the 2nd of November 1990 with Cum Laude. After his Ph.D., Jacques Neefjes did two post-doctoral visits. First, from 1991 to 1992, he visited the laboratory of Drs Benoit and Mathis at the Institut de Chimie Biologique, Strasbourg (France). Then, he obtained a 2-year fellowship from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) to visit the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Hämmerling at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), in Heidelberg (Germany) from 1992 to 1993. In 1993, Jacques Neefjes became a staff member of the Division of Cellular Biochemistry at the NKI. In 1998, he became head of the division of Tumor Biology. From 1999 to 2016, he occupied the position of "Extraordinary professor" at the Leiden University. He was the Dean of the Graduate School Oncology Amsterdam (OOA) from 2000 to 2003. Since 2016, he is head of the Cell and Chemical Biology department at the Leiden University Medical Center (the Netherlands).

Works During his career, Jacques Neefjes has authored more than 280 scientific publications reaching more than 30,000 citations. Neefjes’ discoveries on antigen presentation by the class I and II major histocompatibility complexes (MHC) constitute today's textbook knowledge. Through his exploration of the cell biology of the MHC, Jacques Neefjes became an expert on endocytosis and intracellular transport. In 2017, Neefjes and his team made fundamental discoveries regarding endosome positioning by the endoplasmic reticulum. Neefjes further expanded his work on endosomes to phagosomes and intracellular bacteria. By combining chemistry, cell biology and biochemistry with genetic screens, Neefjes identified inhibitors to disturb bacterial survival strategies, representing one of the first antibiotics acting by targeting the host, rather than the pathogen. In 2015, Neefjes has demonstrated that Salmonella infection promote cancer development. Since 2019, Jacques Neefjes is co-financing the production of a promising cancer drug, Aclarubicin, which disappeared from the European market at the beginning of the 21st century.

Distinction

Honours and awards 1990 Antonie van Leeuwenhoek award 1996 Golden Medal of the Royal Dutch Chemical Society (KNCV) 2007 Elected as a member of European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) 2010 Elected as a member at the European Academy of Cancer Sciences 2013 Elected as a member of Academia Europaea 2013 Recipient and main applicant for the Gravity Program at the Institute for Chemical Immunology ICI 2014 Elected as a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi) 2015 Elected as a member and Dutch representative in the European Cooperation in Science and Technology Committee 2015 Elected as a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) 2015 van Loghem Lecture, the annual career award for research in Immunology from the Dutch Immunology Society NVVI 2019 Josephine Nefkens Award for cancer research 2020 Spinoza Prize

Honorary Lectures 2012 Ruysch lecture AMC, Amsterdam 2012 Beatty Lecture, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Selected research articles The Biosynthetic Pathway of MHC Class II but Not Class I Molecules Intersects the Endocytic Route. Neefjes JJ, Stollorx V, Peters PJ, Geuze HJ, and Ploegh HL. Cell. 1990. 61:171-183. The major substrates for TAP in vivo are derived from newly synthesized proteins. Reits EA, Vos JC, Grommé M, and Neefjes JJ. Nature. 2000. 404:774–778. Intracellular bacterial growth is controlled by a kinase network around PKB/AKT1. Kuijl C, Savage ND, Marsman M, Tuin AW, Janssen L, Egan DA, Ketema M, Van Den Nieuwendijk R, Van Den Eeden SJ, Geluk A, Poot A, Van Der Marel G, Beijersbergen RL, Overkleeft H, Ottenhoff TH, and Neefjes JJ. Nature. 2007. 450:725–730 An ER-Associated Pathway Defines Endosomal Architecture for Controlled Cargo Transport. Jongsma ML, Berlin I, Wijdeven RH, Janssen L, Janssen GM, Garstka MA, Janssen H, Mensink M, van Veelen PA, Spaapen RM, and Neefjes JJ. Cell. 2016. 166:152-166

References

External links Jacques Neefjes publications indexed by Google Scholar ORCID.org ResearchGate.net Researchgate Profile Jacques Neefjes Archived 2019-09-24 at the Wayback Machine, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences universiteitleiden.nl ae-info.org Profile on department website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jacques Neefjes

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jacques Neefjes claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jacques Neefjes before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jacques Neefjes ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jacques Neefjes

In research: Jacques Neefjes appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jacques Neefjes in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jacques Neefjes is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1959 births, Academic staff of Leiden University, Dutch medical researchers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jacques Neefjes outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jacques Neefjes in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jacques Neefjes means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jacques Neefjes out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jacques Neefjes in simple terms?

Why does Jacques Neefjes matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jacques Neefjes?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jacques Neefjes.