Bas van Steensel

Bas van Steensel is a Professor and Group Leader at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, where he leads research on genomics of gene regulation and chromatin. His work focuses on developing and applying new genomics tools to study the structure and functions of genomes, chromosomes and chromatin, with emphasis on gene regulation. This research aims to gain fundamental insights essential for understanding cancer mechanisms.

Research Interests

• Genome Architecture: Studying the linear and spatial organization of genomes and how this affects gene regulation
• Transcription Factor Networks: Developing tools to measure transcription factor activity and understand how they collectively control gene expression
• Chromatin Environment: Investigating how local chromatin context influences gene regulation and DNA repair
• Enhancer-Promoter Interactions: Mapping and understanding the functional relationships between regulatory elements
• Nuclear Organization: Exploring how nuclear compartments like the lamina, nucleolus, and speckles organize the genome

Recent Publications Trends

Van Steensel's recent work shows a strong focus on developing high-throughput genomic technologies to map and manipulate regulatory elements. His lab has pioneered methods like TRIP, SuRE, and pA-DamID that enable systematic investigation of chromatin context effects. There's a clear trend toward integrating multiple technologies to understand the combinatorial rules of gene regulation, with increasing emphasis on computational modeling of regulatory grammar as evidenced by the PARM deep learning model for promoter activity prediction.

Scientific Recognition

• Elected as member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in May 2025
• Awarded prestigious European grants in April 2022
• His lab's work on DamID technology is widely recognized as foundational in the field of chromatin mapping
• Eva Brinkman (his former PhD student) received the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek award in 2018

Research Leadership

Dr. van Steensel leads an active research group with approximately 15 members including PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and technical staff. His lab maintains strong collaborations with other research groups at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, including the Rene Medema lab for DNA repair studies and the Vermeulen lab for biochemical analyses. The group emphasizes open science practices and makes their tools, data, and code publicly available through repositories like Addgene, GEO, and GitHub. His lab has trained numerous successful researchers who have gone on to establish their own independent research programs.

Research Infrastructure

His laboratory operates within the Netherlands Cancer Institute's Genomics Core Facility, utilizing advanced next-generation sequencing technologies. The lab has developed a comprehensive suite of genomic tools that are now used by researchers worldwide, with detailed protocols and resources available through their external website and repositories like Addgene.