Ton Schumacher is Principal Investigator at The Netherlands Cancer Institute, and Professor of Immunotechnology at Leiden University. Research of his lab focuses on the development of novel technologies with which T cell responses can be measured or manipulated, and the subsequent use of these technologies to understand how T cells can recognize and destroy human cancer. Work over the past years has described the role of the cancer neo-antigens that are formed as a consequence of DNA damage in human cancer immunotherapy and has identified novel regulators of immune – tumor cell interaction.

Schumacher is recipient of, amongst others, the Amsterdam Inventor Award (2010), Queen Wilhelmina Cancer Research Award (2014), San Salvatore Award (2014), Meyenburg Cancer Research Award (2015), and William B. Coley Award (2016). Schumacher is also co-founder of 4 biotechs that focus on the development of novel cancer immunotherapeutics and is a venture partner at Third Rock Ventures.