Alex Jan "Lex" van der Eb (born 16 January 1934) is a Dutch molecular biologist and virologist.

He has performed research in adenoviruses and was fundamental in the creation of the technique of calcium phosphate transfection and the founding of the HEK 293 and PER.C6 cell lines.

Van der Eb was born on 16 January 1934 in Bandung, Dutch East Indies.

[1] Van der Eb subsequently moved to the United States to become a post-grad at the California Institute of Technology, where he broadened his knowledge of DNA.

[2] Upon request of Cohen van der Eb returned to the Netherlands in 1970 to start a research group in molecular biology of oncoviruses.

[3][8] In 1972 van der Eb obtained and managed to culture embryonic kidney cells from an aborted or miscarried human foetus.

In contrast to HEK 293 the PER.C6 cell line was patented by Leiden University and IntroGene (later Crucell) and used commercially.

[3] In 2007 he was involved in writing the behavioural code for biosecurity of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

[3] Van der Eb was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization in 1977.