Dr. Derek Janssens develops novel genomics technologies to explore the epigenetic contributors to hematological cancers with the goal of informing improved diagnostics and therapies.

He earned his B.S. in biomedical sciences from Grand Valley State University and his Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology from University of Michigan (mentor: Dr. Cheng-Yu Lee). His doctoral research described a genetically encoded circuit that controls rapid gene activation and cell fate commitment following asymmetric neural stem cell division.

He went on to do a postdoc with Dr. Steve Henikoff at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and contributed to the development of the CUT&RUN and CUT&Tag methods, which enable in situ chromatin profiling in small samples and single cells. He leveraged this approach to map active and repressive regulomes in single cells in mixed-lineage leukemia.

In 2024, he joined Van Andel Institute’s Department of Epigenetics as an assistant professor.

He has earned several awards for his research and scholarship including the Hartwell Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, a K22 Transition to Independence Award from the National Cancer Institute and the Forbeck Scholars Award.