Pieter Reitsma - Biography#

As a biologist Pieter Reitsma has always worked at the interface of fundamental science and clinical applications. In that way, he is a translational scientist ‘avant la lettre’ who is among the very few to have brought drugs and diagnostic tests to the clinic. Pieter Reitsma’s original training was in biophysics. In the early stage of his career he performed the experimental animal and in vitro work which was needed to bring the bisphosphonate APD to the clinic to successfully treat patients with destructive bone disease. APD together with a series of related compounds are still on the market not only for severe bone disease, but also for the prevention and treatment of common osteoporosis.

While in the US in the early eighties for his postdoctoral training he recognized the potential of the recombinant DNA technology to revolutionize medicine and started applying this technology to the study of the role of vitamin D in cancer - which resulted in a hall mark Nature paper on the effects of vitamin D on expression of the myc-oncogene in leukemic cells - and represents a topic which remains ‘hot’ up to this date. Upon his return to The Netherlands he turned to the field of Hemostasis and Thrombosis where he made many seminal contributions which made him world leader in the genetics of Hemostasis and Thrombosis. The test for factor V Leiden which he discovered is one of the most commonly performed genetic tests in the world.

During his work in The Netherlands Pieter Reitsma was (and is) responsible for more than 35 PhD students of which several now hold a professorship. Pieter Reitsma has more than 400 PubMed publications, mostly in high ranking international journals. His top five publications have been cited more than 10,000 times. He is senior author of the Nature paper on Factor V Leiden, a publication that is among the most cited papers in the biomedical literature.

Until the end of 2006, Pieter H. Reitsma was head of the Center for Experimental and Molecular Medicine (CEMM) at the Academic Medical Center (AMC) at the University of Amsterdam. In addition, he was director of the Anton Meelmeijer Center for translational research of the AMC that coordinates and stimulates translational research at the AMC. He was also director of the Amsterdam Genomics Center, a collaboration between the Science Faculty of the University of Amsterdam and the AMC. Pieter Reitsma is co-founder of Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics (AMT, now UniQure), a biotech start-up specializing in gene therapy and of the European School for Science Education (ESSE) that offered advanced courses in molecular and cellular biology to medical specialists.

In January 2007, Pieter Reitsma moved back to the Leiden University Medical Center and accepted a joint appointment at the department of Nephrology and the department of Thrombosis and Hemostasis. In the same month the Einthoven Laboratory for Experimental Vascular and Regenerative Medicine was created as a condensation point for vascular research at the Leiden University Medical Center, and Pieter Reitsma was appointed head. At present several departments continue to participate in the Einthoven Laboratory including Nephrology, Cardiology, Thrombosis and Hemostasis, Clinical Epidemiology, and Vascular Surgery.

Starting June 2009 Pieter Reitsma was appointed as head ad interim of the Central Clinical Chemistry Laboratory (CKCL) of the LUMC. This appointment lasted until the end of 2009. In 2010 he became head of the department of Thrombosis and Hemostasis.

Pieter Reitsma officially retired in April of 2016 as head of both the department of Thrombosis and Hemostasis and of the Einthoven Laboratory. He remained full professor at the LUMC until April 2021 in the function of advisor.

In 2016 VarmX B.V. was founded by Pieter Reitsma and Paul Bilars as a spin-off of the LUMC (https://www.varmx.com), and Pieter Reitsma acts as CSO of this company. VarmX has as mission to bring drugs that stop bleeding to the market. The lead product is called VMX-C001. VMX-C001 can stop and prevent bleeding in individuals who are taking direct oral anticoagulants in the form of factor Xa inhibitors.