Dr. Arnon Kater, M.D., Ph.D., is a faculty hematologist at the Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Since graduating in 1998, Dr. Kater has alternated his internal medicine residency with a number of research and clinical roles in The Netherlands and elsewhere; the latter includes a surgery post in Tel Aviv and a year of research at the University of California, San Diego at the invitation of Professor Kipps in 2004.
His thesis entitled, “Live and Let Die: Novel Apoptosis Inducing Strategies in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia,” was awarded the Van Vlissingen Foundation Thesis Prize (award for the best thesis in the field of lympho-proliferative diseases in The Netherlands). In 2007, Dr. Kater won the Jan Swammerdam Prize, which is awarded by the Dutch Society of Haematology to the most talented young hematologist in The Netherlands. “In my opinion, the lab of Dr. Kipps is one of the very rare labs in the world that actually makes a difference and that will dictate the direction of both science and clinical aspects of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. I am very proud that I have the ability to collaborate with this group. I am very thankful to the BCRF for their support of my research."
Dr. Kater is currently involved in a number of chronic lymphocytic leukemia related research projects in the AMC’s Laboratory of Experimental Hematology/Immunology. Active collaborations exist with Professor Kipps, the Moores Cancer Center, UCSD and within the European Research Initiative on CLL framework. He is a member of the HOVON CLL working group and is a reviewer for several journals, among them the British Journal of Haematology and Blood.
The Blood Cancer Research Fund supports Dr. Kater in order to perform a collaborative study with the University of Amsterdam and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. His specific research is to elucidate the role and regulation of p73 in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. To actually execute this project, Dr. Kater suspended his clinical work in Amsterdam for one year and moved with his family to La Jolla to perform research with the BCRF and Dr. Thomas Kipps.