Sander Kersten

Sander Kersten is the Director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences and the Schleifer Family Professor at Cornell University. He previously held academic positions at Wageningen University, where he was appointed Associate Professor (2006), Full Professor (2011), and later became Chair of the Nutrition, Metabolism and Genomics group (2014) and Chairman of the Division of Human Nutrition and Health (2019).

• Education: MSc in Human Nutrition (1993, Wageningen University); PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry (1997, Cornell University)

Research Interests: Molecular mechanisms regulating lipid metabolism in liver and adipose tissue during fasting/feeding cycles, focusing on transcription factors like PPARα and proteins such as ANGPTL4. His work explores how evolutionary adaptations to undernutrition now contribute to modern metabolic diseases like obesity, NAFLD, and atherosclerosis.

Key Contributions: Discovery of ANGPTL4's role in lipid uptake regulation, elucidation of PPARα's function in human liver metabolism, and development of multi-organ models linking fasting responses to cardiometabolic disease.

Scientific Awards:

• Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Career Development Grant