About me
Berent Prakken (MD, PhD) is vice-dean and director of the biomedical education centre at the Utrecht Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU), the Netherlands. He is also professor of pediatric immunology at the UMCU and honorary professor at the University of Ghent, Belgium. Berent Prakken has built a translational research lab that focused on regulation of inflammation and biomarker development in human in inflammatory diseases. He and his group received numerous national and international awards and grants for their work. Over the years he successfully mentored more than 50 PhD students. Prakken has served in various national and international research advisory boards and was member of the Dutch National Health Council (‘Gezondheidsraad’). He was vice-chair of Medical Ethical Review Board (IRB) of the UMCU. Among others, Berent Prakken was president of the Pediatric Rheumatology European Society (PRES), member of the EULAR (European League Against Rheumatism) executive committee and co-founder of the first international platform for biological studies in arthritis (UCAN). Berent is one of the founders of the Eureka Institute for Translational Medicine and current member of its executive board. Since 2017 he fully dedicates himself to education and training. He was PI of the Erasmus plus Pathway project for the careers of clinical scientists and was closely involved in the development of the New Utrecht School as educational strategy of UMC Utrecht. Berent Prakken’s personal commitment is to collaboration, Open Science and the empowerment of young clinical scientists. Unconventional thinking and crossing traditional boundaries inspire him. Berent strongly believes in the power of working together to make this a better world.
