Yvette van Kooyk - Biography#

Prof.dr.Yvette van Kooyk did her PhD training at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (1989-1993) in the field of transplantation immunology revealing pioneering molecular mechanisms that regulate immune cell adhesion through integrin activation. From her postdoc-to associate professor at RadboudUMC (1994-2000), and training at Genentech, US, she focussed her research on cell adhesion and Dendritic cells in inflammatory immune processes. In 2000, she discovered the, innate receptor DC-SIGN a C-type lectin on Dendritic cells, playing a crucial role in HIV recognition and cellular interactions through the recognition of glycan structures. This discovery set the stage of a new field that led to novel concepts on pathogen glycosylations that interact and the host via recognition by C-type lectin receptor, present on innate immune cells such as Dendritic cells and modulate immune responses. In 2001 she became professor of molecular cell biology and immunology at VUmc. Van Kooyk’s research team is working on dendritic cell (DC) mediated immune responses guided by glycosylation. Her work is focused on innate immune responses and cellular communication driven by modified glycoproteins/lipids in cancer, infection and autoimmunity. Central in her work is the development of new glycan modified cancer vaccines targeting skin resident antigens presenting cells such as DC. Her research is aimed to discover of glycan imposed regulatory immune imprinting, the glycocode, by inflamed tissue and tumor microenvironment. She studies these questions in in-vivo mouse tumor models such as pancreatic cancer, colon and melanoma and human in-vitro models such as skin model, tumor tissues and complex 3D culture models to identify cellular communication at omics level in the context of tissue alterations.

She was awarded various NWO grants (PIONIER-ASPASIA-TOP) and EU grants (ERC Advanced-Eurostars-H2020) and the van Loghem award for life time achievements in field of Immunology (2014). She received the SPINOZA award (2019), and is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW, 2018) and Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (KHMW, 2020). She published more than 280 scientific papers in well recognized journals (Cell, Nature, Nature Immunology, PNAS, JEM) and supervised 40 PhD students. She is inventor of 6 patents and is Chief Scientific Officer of the start-up company DC4U and Glycotreat.