Jos W.M. van der Meer (born April 15, 1947) is emeritus professor and former chairman at the department of internal medicine of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in Nijmegen, Netherlands. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 2003), of which he was vice president and chairman of the division of natural sciences (2006-2012). He is a member of Academia Europaea. Between 2014 and 2016 he was president of European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC). He performs research on cytokines and host defence, chronic fatigue syndrome and hyper-immunoglobulinemia D syndrome (HIDS). He is also active in graphic art and makes cartoons, for example for the Dutch science journal Mediator.

History

In 1984, van der Meer published the first paper about HIDS, the new "periodic fever" syndrome he had discovered. This was the start of his research on interleukin-1 (IL-1) and his collaboration with Dr. Charles A. Dinarello, to find out whether this was an IL-1 disease. In the early 1990s together with his former PhD student Joost PH Drenth, he collected data on HIDS patients in the Netherlands and abroad and characterised the inflammatory response in HIDS (increased IL-1β production of the white blood cells). In 1999, Drenth and van der Meer could establish – together with the group of Dr. Marc Delpech in Paris – that the syndrome was due to mutations of the gene encoding for mevalonate kinase, an enzyme in the cholesterol synthesis pathway. Independently – and at the same time – the group of Professor Ronald Wanders (Amsterdam), also found this genetic defect. Together with Anna Simon and Joost Drenth he established that HIDS should be considered an auto-inflammatory syndrome. Some 5 years ago, his group discovered that recombinant interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA, anakinra) is effective as a treatment for HIDS. This finding not only provides patients with an effective therapy, but also provides further proof that HIDS is an interleukin-1 disease. Since 1987, van der Meer worked on the role of cytokines in health and inflammatory disease. The work started in Boston and was continued in Nijmegen. In the years to follow, Bart-Jan Kullberg (1992), Mihai Netea (1994) and Leo AB Joosten (2007) joined the group. Major findings of the group are: As a clinician confronted with patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), van der Meer was intrigued by their suffering. Since 1989 together with Gijs Bleijenberg and Jochem MD Galama, he performed research trying to understand CFS. Major findings are: Concerned about the increasing antimicrobial resistance in the world, he was one of the founders (and first chairman) of the Dutch working group on antibiotic policy, SWAB, which receives long-term support from the Ministry of Health in the Netherlands. At the European level, he was a co-founder and first chairman of the ESGAP (ESCMID study group on antimicrobial policy). Since 1990, van der Meer is involved with biomedical research development and capacity building in Indonesia (first in Semarang, later in Jakarta and Bandung). In 2004, together with Andre JAM van der Ven, he took the initiative to establish PRIOR (Poverty Related Infection Oriented Research), a virtual collaborative centre in which research groups in Jakarta and Bandung in Indonesia (Professor Sangkot Marzuki), KCMC Moshi, Tanzania (Professor Shao), Nijmegen (Professor AJAM van der Ven), Leiden (Professor Tom Ottenhoff), Maastricht (Professor Harm Hospers), RIVM Bilthoven (Professor Dick van Soolingen), and Wageningen (Professor Clive West †) work together in the combat of poverty-related infections (especially HIV infection and tuberculosis).

Awards

-*Together with others