Daniel Peeper

Daniel Peeper heads the Division of Molecular Oncology & Immunology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI). He is Professor of Functional Oncogenomics at the VU University Amsterdam and a member of the Oncode Institute. He studied Medical Biology at the VU University and earned his PhD in the laboratory of Alex van der Eb (Leiden University), followed by postdoctoral training with Mark Ewen (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) on Ras-dependent cell-cycle control, which he continued at NKI with René Bernards.
     Peeper established his laboratory at NKI in 2002, pioneering oncogene-induced senescence as an in vivo tumor-suppressive mechanism, and discovered its link to inflammation, which is now emerging as an immuno-oncology strategy. His group develops functional genomic screening approaches to uncover cancer- and immune-intrinsic drivers of therapy resistance, identifying actionable mechanisms and therapeutic targets, including RNF31 whose inhibition sensitizes cancer cells to T cell killing. To support translation, he co-founded the NKI/Oncode immuno-oncology spin-off FlindrTx. His lab also uncovered several mechanisms underlying T cell dysfunction in cancer. Most recently, he discovered that heterotypic T cell clusters from cancer specimens are highly enriched for antitumor activity, for which a clinical protocol is being developed.
     At NKI, Peeper has chaired the Research Faculty Council and the Translational Research Board. He is an elected member of EMBO and Academia Europaea, served on the Board of the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR), and is a member of the CRUK Discovery Research Committee. His work has been supported by NWO Vici, ERC Synergy and Advanced Grants and was recognized with several awards, including the KWF Queen Wilhelmina Award and the Society for Melanoma Research (SMR) Junior Researcher and Outstanding Researcher Awards.