Biosketch
Cornelis (Kees) Murre is a Distinguished Professor and former Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of California, San Diego. He earned his doctorandus degree at the University of Amsterdam and his PhD from the University of Leiden. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and joined the Department of Biology faculty at the University of California, San Diego in 1990. Awards include the Searle Scholar and National Institutes of Health Merit Award.
Research Interests
Dr. Murre seeks to understand how helix-loop-helix proteins orchestrate immune cell development, including the onset of B cell differentiation, B-lineage progression, germinal center B cell maturation, T cell identity, thymocyte maturation, follicular helper T cell development and Treg homeostasis. He applies concepts in mathematics, physics and molecular biology to reveal how enormous variation in antibody specificities is generated in 4-dimnesional space. More recently, Murre aims to unveil in mechanistic terms how a subset of immune cells, named neutrophils, adopt polymorphonuclear shapes.
Membership Type
Member
Election Year
2025
Primary Section
Section 43: Immunology and Inflammation