Jos Jonkers – Candidate for the Nominating Committee of AACR

The voting for the 2025 AACR Annual Election is now open, where members will vote for the next President-Elect, Treasurer, five Board Members, and four members of the Nominating Committee.

This year, Jos Jonkers, PhD is a candidate for the Nominating Committee of AACR.

Jos Jonkers is a Senior Investigator at the Oncode Institute in Utrecht and a Professor of Molecular Experimental Oncogenetics and Cancer Therapeutics at Leiden University.

He is also the Managing Director of The Mouse Clinic for Cancer and Aging Research (MCCA) in Amsterdam, and a Senior Group Leader at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam.

Previously, Jonkers served as the Head of the Division of Molecular Pathology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute from 2012 to 2021.

He was a Junior Group Leader (Assistant Professor) in the Division of Molecular Pathology from 2003 to 2008, and later became a Group Leader (Associate Professor) and permanent staff member in the Division of Molecular Biology at the same institution.

Jos Jonkers’ research focuses on the development and progression of breast cancer, with particular attention to the prevention and treatment of breast tumors, as well as understanding therapy response and resistance.

His work explores BRCA1/2-associated breast cancer and invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC), using mouse models and patient-derived tumor xenograft (PDX) models to investigate these processes and improve therapeutic strategies.

Jos Jonkers has received numerous honors and served in key roles within the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

He is currently a member of the Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research Committee (2023-2024) and the AACR Publications Committee (2021-2024).

He has previously served as conference co-chair for the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: The Evolving Landscape of Cancer Modeling (2020) and as a member of various prestigious committees, including the AACR-Waun Ki Hong Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research (2019-2021) and the AACR Distinguished Lectureship in Breast Cancer Research Committee (2018-2020).

Additionally, Jonkers has been involved in leadership roles such as co-chair of the Annual Meeting Program Committee (2017-2018) and chair of the AACR Basic Cancer Research Fellowships Scientific Review Committee (2016-2017).

He has also served on editorial boards for several AACR journals, including Cancer Research (2016-2019) and Molecular Cancer Research (2013-present), and contributed to committees like the Annual Meeting Education Committee (2013-2014) and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation-AACR Grants for Translational Cancer Research Committee (2013-2014).

Education

Jos Jonkers earned his MSc in Molecular Sciences from Wageningen University in 1989 and went on to receive his PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 1999.

His postdoctoral training includes a position as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in 2002, followed by a Senior Research Associate role at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, United Kingdom, also in 2002.

Honors and Awards

– Recipient, Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) 2018 Laura Ziskin Prize in Translational Research (2018)
– Recipient, Senior Investigator Grant (1.25 M€) by the Oncode Institute (2018)
– Member, Scientific Advisory Board of Artios Pharma (2017-2020)
– Scientific Director, European Consortium of PDX Models (EuroPDX) (2017-present)
– Recipient, Grand Challenge Grant (17.3 M€) by Cancer Research UK (co-PI) (2017)
– Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Newcastle University CRUK Drug Discovery Program (2016-present)
– Vice Chair, Dutch Cancer Society (KWF) Basic Science Committee (2016-2018)
– Member, Board of Directors, European Consortium of PDX Models (EuroPDX) (2014-present)