Wouter Moolenaar became group leader at the NKI in 1988 and in 2010 he retired. After his retirement he remained actively involved in phospholipid research. Wouter Moolenaar discovered that nature’s simplest phospholipid, lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), is a lipid growth factor involved in numerous biological processes, including cell migration and proliferation. He also focused on the LPA-producing enzyme autotaxin, specifically its mechanism of action, and role in tumor progression.