Hugo Snippert uses microscopy and molecular genetics to unravel how it is that there is a huge diversity of tumour cells and what the consequences of this are.
He was one of the first researchers to apply microscopy to organoids – mini-organs grown in the lab – enabling biological processes in living cells to be studied in detail.
He recently succeeded in using organoid technology to track how a colon tumour responds to combined drug treatment. This knowledge helps towards the tailoring of individual cancer therapies.