Willem J. G. Melchers PhD

Willem Melchers is an associate professor Research interests are in molecular microbiology, with a specific focus on the relationship between HPV infections and the development of cervical cancer. Cervical cancer accounts for 10% of all cancer related deaths in women. Each year 470,000 women are worldwide diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer, and 230,000 women die because of this disease. Studies have clearly demonstrated that infection by human papillomavirus (HPV) is a necessary cause for the development of cervical cancer. The infection, however, is widespread. Current studies of him are focusing on the secondary factors related to progression from subclinical infection to invasive cervical cancer. His interests include novel interdisciplinary approaches where molecular biology and genetics are tightly coupled with (bio)physical/informatics methods aimed at understanding the biological function at a molecular level. Willem Melchers is associate professor in Molecular Microbiology. He is head of the Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology of the Department of Medical Microbiology.