Yvette van Kooyk

Yvette van Kooyk is a Professor of Molecular Cell Biology and Immunology at Amsterdam UMC (VUmc location) and Head of the Department of Molecular Cell Biology and Immunology since 2001. She previously served as Director of the Amsterdam Infection & Immunity Institute (2017–2021) and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of spin-off companies DC4U and Glycotreat. Her research focuses on dendritic cell biology, glycobiology, and immune responses in cancer, infection, and autoimmunity.

Education: PhD in transplantation immunology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (1989–1993). Key contributions include the discovery of the DC-SIGN receptor and pioneering work on glycocode-driven immune regulation. She has supervised 40 PhD students and holds 6 patents.

Research interests include glycan-mediated immune modulation, tumor microenvironment analysis, and development of glycan-modified cancer vaccines. She employs in-vivo mouse models (e.g., pancreatic cancer, melanoma) and human in-vitro systems (skin models, 3D cultures).

Awards include the Spinoza Award (2019), ERC Advanced Grant, and membership in the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW, 2018). She has authored over 280 publications in journals like Nature and Cell.

Her work bridges basic research and translational medicine, with a focus on immune checkpoint modulation and novel vaccine strategies targeting dendritic cells.