Dr Evelien Gevers

Profile

ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4397-4126

Dr Evelien Gevers studied Medicine at Leiden University in Leiden, The Netherlands. She developed her interest in Paediatric Endocrinology as an undergraduate, and studied the effect of GnRH analogue treatment in girls with precocious puberty in the Paediatric Endocrine department in Leiden University Medical Centre. After graduating, she worked for a few months as a clinical scientist in the Dutch Working Group for Growth Hormone, with Prof Jan Maarten Wit. She then won a 2 year grant from the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences to study growth hormone (GH) secretion, GH binding protein and GH receptors and their regulation by sex steroids in the rat, in The National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill, with Prof Iain Robinson. After return to The Netherlands, she continued her PhD project with Jan Maarten Wit in Leiden University, further focusing on the growth plate and growth, extending her work to estrogen receptors, PTH receptors and PTHrP in the growth plate. She then started her Paediatric training in the Erasmus Medical Centre – Sophia Children’s Hospital in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. She interrupted her clinical training to return to Iain Robinson’s group in The National Institute for Medical Research in 1999, as a postdoctoral scientist and worked on the GH deficient dwarf rat, GH and bone marrow adipocytes, and GH signalling through Stat5b in the growth plate. She then also joined the Department of Endocrinology at Great Ormond Street Hospital as an honorary clinical fellow with Prof Mehul Dattani. From 2007, she continued her Paediatric training in London Hospitals, and Paediatric Endocrine training in Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. In 2012, she worked at the Erasmus Medical Centre – Sophia Children’s Hospital and the diabetes centre ‘Diabeter’ to complete her training for dual Dutch and UK registration and continued there in her first Consultant post. In 2013, she was appointed as a Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist in Barts Health – Royal London Children’s Hospital with an academic component at the Centre for Endocrinology at WHRI.

She has been awarded Young Investigator Awards from the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology, the Dutch Society for Paediatrics and the GH and IGF1 Research Society. 

She is a member and Vice-Chair of the Science Committee of the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology, a member of the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit Data Working Group, and the National Working Group for Type 2 Diabetes in Children and the British Paediatric and Adolescent Bone Group.

She is PI for many commercial and non-commercial NIHR studies at Royal London Children’s Hospital and is the National Coordinating Investigator for studies in Prader Willi Syndrome (Destiny, Soleno) and Type 2 Diabetes (Vertis, Merck). She is part of the Oversight Committee for the Interleukin-2 Therapy of Autoimmunity in Diabetes Study.

Research

My main interests are pituitary disorders, including congenital hypopituitarism and craniopharyngioma, neuroendocrinology and growth disorders. I have worked in the field of Paediatric Endocrinology since 1992 both clinically and in basic science. My work has focused on GH-Stat5-IGF1 axis and the physiology of growth and short stature, both in rodents and in humans, looking at GH secretion, GH receptors and GH signalling transduction through Stat5, and local actions of GH and IGF1 in the growth plate where actual growth takes place.My current research focuses on underlying genetic causes for hypopituitarism, craniopharyngioma and short stature, and the biological consequences of such genetic abnormalities. The aim of my research is to:

Key Publications

• PTH Infusion for Seizures in Autosomal Dominant Hypocalcemia Type 1
  Sastre A, Valentino K, Fadil M. Hannan, Kate E. Lines, Anna K. Gluck, Mark Stevenson, Ryalls M, Gorrican R, Pullen D, Buck J, Sankaranarayanan S, Allgrove J, Thakker R, Gevers EF, N Engl J Med 2021; 385:189-191
• Activating mutations in BRAF disrupt the hypothalamo-pituitary axis leading to hypopituitarism in mice and humans.
  Gualtieri A, Kyprianou N, Gregory LC, Vignola ML, Nicholson JG, Tan R, Inoue SI, Scagliotti V, Casado P, Blackburn J, Abollo-Jimenez F, Marinelli E, Besser REJ, Högler W, Karen Temple I, Davies JH, Gagunashvili A, Robinson ICAF, Camper SA, Davis SW, Cutillas PR, Gevers EF, Aoki Y, Dattani MT, Gaston-Massuet C. Nat Commun. 2021;12:2028. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-21712-4. PMID: 33795686
• Dominant-negative STAT5B mutations cause growth hormone insensitivity with short stature and mild immune dysregulation.
  Klammt J, Neumann D, Gevers EF, Andrew SF (shared first authors), Schwartz ID, Rockstroh D, Colombo R, Sanchez MA, Vokurkova D, Kowalczyk J, Metherell LA, Rosenfeld RG, Pfäffle R, Dattani MT, Dauber A, Hwa V. Nat Commun. 2018;9:2105. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04521-0. PMID: 29844444
• Disease characteristics of MCT8 deficiency: an international, retrospective, multicentre cohort study.
  Groeneweg S, van Geest FS, Abacı A, Alcantud A, Ambegaonkar GP, Armour CM, Bakhtiani P, Barca D, Bertini ES, van Beynum IM, Brunetti-Pierri N, Bugiani M, Cappa M, Cappuccio G, Castellotti B, Castiglioni C, Chatterjee K, de Coo IFM, Coutant R, Craiu D, Crock P, DeGoede C, Demir K, Dica A, Dimitri P, Dolcetta-Capuzzo A, Dremmen MHG, Dubey R, Enderli A, Fairchild J, Gallichan J, George B, Gevers EF, Hackenberg A, Halász Z, Heinrich B, Huynh T, Kłosowska A, van der Knaap MS, van der Knoop MM, Konrad D, Koolen DA, Krude H, Lawson-Yuen A, Lebl J, Linder-Lucht M, Lorea CF, Lourenço CM, Lunsing RJ, Lyons G, Malikova J, Mancilla EE, McGowan A, Mericq V, Lora FM, Moran C, Müller KE, Oliver-Petit I, Paone L, Paul PG, Polak M, Porta F, Poswar FO, Reinauer C, Rozenkova K, Menevse TS, Simm P, Simon A, Singh Y, Spada M, van der Spek J, Stals MAM, Stoupa A, Subramanian GM, Tonduti D, Turan S, den Uil CA, Vanderniet J, van der Walt A, Wémeau JL, Wierzba J, de Wit MY, Wolf NI, Wurm M, Zibordi F, Zung A, Zwaveling-Soonawala N, Visser WE. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2020;8:594-605. doi: 10.1016/S2213587(20)30153-4. PMID: 32559475
• Paediatric pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours in von Hippel-Lindau disease.
  O'Toole SM, Sahdev A, Bhattacharya S, Feakins R, Gevers EF, Drake WM. Endocr Relat Cancer. 2018;25:L43-L47. doi: 10.1530/ERC-18-0123. PMID: 29752349
• Prophylactic thyroidectomy in children with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2.
  Prete FP, Abdel-Aziz T, Morkane C, Brain C, Kurzawinski TR; MEN2 in Children UK Collaborative Group. Br J Surg. 2018;105:1319-1327. doi: 10.1002/bjs.10856. PMID: 29663329
• Modeling Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia and Testing Interventions for Adrenal Insufficiency Using Donor-Specific Reprogrammed Cells.
  Ruiz-Babot G, Balyura M, Hadjidemetriou I, Ajodha SJ, Taylor DR, Ghataore L, Taylor NF, Schubert U, Ziegler CG, Storr HL, Druce MR, Gevers EF, Drake WM, Srirangalingam U, Conway GS, King PJ, Metherell LA, Bornstein SR, Guasti L. Cell Rep. 2018;22:1236-1249. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.01.003. PMID: 29386111
• Structural Pituitary Abnormalities Associated With CHARGE Syndrome.
  Gregory LCG, Gevers EF (shared first authors), Baker J, Kasia T, Chong K, Josifova DJ, Caimari M, Bilan F, McCabe MJ, Dattani MT. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013; 98:E737-43.
• Regulation of rapid Stat5 phosphorylation in the resting cells of the growth plate and in the liver by growth hormone and feeding.
  Gevers EF, Hannah M, Waters MJ, Robinson ICAF. Endocrinology 2009; 150:3627-3636.
• Hypothalamic STAT proteins: regulation of somatostatin neurones by growth hormone via STAT5b.
  Bennett E, McGuinness L, Gevers EF, Thomas GB, Robinson IC, Davey HW, Luckman SM. J Neuroendocrinology 2005;17:186-194.
• Increased adipogenesis in bone marrow associated with decreased bone mineral density in mice deficient in thyroid hormone receptors alpha 1 and beta.
  Kindblom JM, Gevers EF, Moverare S, Lindberg MK, Gothe S, Tornell J, Venstrom, Ohlsson C.  Bone. 2005; 36:607-616.
• Regulation of galanin-like peptide (GALP) gene expression by pituitary hormones and their downstream targets.
  Cunningham MJ, Krasnow SM, Gevers EF, Chen P, Thompson CK, Robinson ICAF, Smith MS, Clifton DK, Steiner RA. J Neuroendocrinology 2004; 16:10-18.
• Bone marrow adipocytes: a neglected target tissue for growth hormone.
  Gevers EF, Loveridge N, Robinson ICAF. Endocrinology 2002; 143:4065-73.
• Localization and regulation of growth hormone (GH) receptor and GH binding protein in the rat growth plate.
  Gevers EF, Van der Eerden BC, Raap AK, Robinson ICAF, Wit JM. J Bone Miner Res. 2002; 17:1408-1419.
• Expression of estrogen receptor alpha and beta in the epiphyseal plate of the rat.
  Van der Eerden BC, Gevers EF (shared first authors), Löwik CW, Karperien M, Wit JM. Bone. 2002;30:478-85. Erratum in: Bone 2002; 31:348.
• Expression of Indian hedgehog, parathyroid hormone-related protein, and their receptors in the postnatal growth plate of the rat: evidence for a locally acting growth restraining feedback loop after birth. 
  Van der Eerden BC, Karperien M, Gevers EF, Löwik CW, Wit JM. J Bone Miner Res. 2000; 15:1045-55.

Collaborators