René Bernards received his Ph.D. in 1984 from the University of Leiden and conducted postdoctoral research at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, USA, focusing on oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. He co-founded "Agendia" in 2003, offering microarray-based tests for breast cancer management. Bernards received numerous awards for his research and is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.