Jannie Borst - Biography#

Jannie Borst obtained a Master in Biology with Chemistry at Leiden University in 1980. She did her PhD work at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School in Boston and obtained her degree from Leiden University in 1985. In 1987, she started her independent career as a research group leader with the aid of a highly competitive 5-year personal fellowship. In 1992, she obtained tenure as staff scientist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute where she also was the head of the Division of Immunology from 2002-2019. From 1999 until present, she is professor in Experimental Oncology at the University of Amsterdam and coordinator of the Biomedical Master track Oncology.

In January 2019, she has become head of the Department of Immunohematology and Blood Transfusion at Leiden University Medical School and professor in Immunology at Leiden University.

Jannie Borst maintains a research group of about 14 people on competitive grants. She is the author of about 200 research papers (H-index 73). Her research contributes insights into the regulation of the T cell response with focus on costimulatory membrane receptors, associated signaling pathways and gene expression programs. She also explores the concept of "immunogenic cell death" in the context of radio- and chemotherapy. In collaboration with dr. Hans van Eenennaam of Aduro Biotech Europe, she has helped to develop a new immunotherapeutic drug against cancer that is now in clinical testing (http://investors.aduro.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=242043&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2227361).

The mechanisms revealed by this work may also be exploited to combat infectious disease, auto-immunity and transplant rejection.

List of publications

In PubMed searches please use a second key word, such as “lymphocyte”, given the many authors with a similar name.