UI COM Welcomes Dr. Roeland Nusse for Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series
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This past Tuesday, April 14, 2026, the University of Illinois College of Medicine welcomed Dr. Roeland Nusse for the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture series as well as a conversation with medical students. Dr. Nusse is currently the Virginia and Daniel K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research at Stanford University. He has served as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 1990.
Dr. Nusse received his BSc in biology and his PhD from the University of Amsterdam. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, under the guidance of Dr. Harold Varmus. It was at UC San Francisco in 1982 where he and Dr. Varmus discovered the Wnt1 gene, a critical player in cell division and generation. His pioneering research has fundamentally shaped our understanding of stem cell biology and cancer.
Tuesday’s lecture entitled “A New View on the Regulation of the Cell Cycle by Growth Factors” discussed key discoveries about cell behavior based on the activation, deactivation, and interaction of various genes and cellular components. His conversation with UI COM medical students included a Q&A about his career path and shaping the future of cancer research.
The Dean’s Distinguished Lecture series was launched in the fall of 2022 in order to highlight research topics that integrate efforts by multidisciplinary teams.