Noam Zelcer has a background in pharmacology and molecular biology and completed his doctorate at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), where he researched the role of ABC transporters in multi-drug resistance. In follow-up research at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), he investigated the regulation of lipid metabolism.

Zelcer has been a member of the AMC-UvA Medical Biochemistry department since 2009, where in recent years he and his research team have identified various genes associated with the regulation of cholesterol metabolism. In his new professorship, Zelcer's research will focus on the molecular mechanisms driving lipid regulation and energy metabolism, with the aim to gain an understanding of how disruptions to these homoeostatic processes contribute to the development of cardiovascular diseases. Zelcer is also actively involved with education in the Medicine and Medical Biology curricula.

Zelcer is the recipient of numerous research grants, including an AMC Fellowship in 2009, a Vidi grant in 2010, and in 2013 a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to identify and characterise mechanisms that influence fat metabolism. He has also been an established investigator with the Dutch Heart Association since 2014.