Kater’s fundamental, translational and clinical research as a clinical hematologist is focused on lymphatic cancer (lymphoma), particularly chronic lymphatic leukaemia (CLL). Together with his colleagues at the AMC-UvA, Prof. Rien van Oers and Prof. Eric Eldering, Kater is working towards a better understanding of the cellular and molecular processes underlying the emergence and clinical behaviour of these illnesses. Many new insights are emerging in this field and rapidly leading to new treatment modalities. Over the coming years, Kater – along with Prof. Marie José Kersten and the departments of Pathology and Experimental Immunology – will be shaping research and patient care at the AMC-UvA within hematology, particularly in the area of lymphoma and CLL.

Kater was trained as an internist (hematologist) at the AMC-UvA and spent his peripheral internship at Slotervaart Hospital. In 2006 he obtained his doctorate in research into cell death regulation in CLL cells. His doctoral thesis was awarded the Fentener van Vlissingen Junior Prize. Kater has been a staff member of the Internal Medicine department at the AMC-UvA since 2007, and principal researcher in Clinical Hematology since 2012. From 2008 to 2009 he also worked as a postdoc at the Moores Cancer Centre and the Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Signal Transduction at the University of California (San Diego, US). Kater is one of the founders of the Lymphoma and Myeloma Center Amsterdam (LYMMCARE), a specialist knowledge centre where the AMC-UvA's Clinical Hematology, Experimental Immunology and Pathology departments have joined forces since 2012.

Kater has been awarded many grants for his research. In 2011, for example, he was awarded a large individual grant by the Dutch Cancer Society to set up his own research group. In 2007 Kater was awarded the Jan Swammerdam prize, which aims to encourage talented hematologists under the age of 45. 

Kater has published in many scientific journals, including Blood, Leukemia and the Journal of Clinical Oncology. He is also a member of the editorial board on the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Hematologie. Since September this year, he has been chair of the Dutch CLL working group at the Haemato Oncology Foundation for Adults in the Netherlands (HOVON).