An Coosemans MD, PhD

An Coosemans MD PhD started research in immunology at the KU Leuven (Belgium) at the age of 20, as a student-investigator, during her medical studies. As a student, she obtained 3 international scientific prices, presented her work at 10 national and international conferences, and funded the Leuvense Vereniging Student-Onderzoekers (LVSO), currently counting over 200 students-investigators at the faculties of medical and pharmaceutical sciences.

Graduating from medicine in 2005, she started a traineeship in gynecology and obstetrics with Ignace Vergote MD PhD, which she combined with a PhD in immunology from 2006 until 2010, supported by a research fellow mandate of the FWO-V. In 2012, she received her specialty degree in gynecology and obstetrics and started a research team on tumor immunology and immunotherapy in ovarian cancer (IMMUNOVAR). She was able to combine her research with a partial activity as a clinician. Since 2015, she has been the coordinator of the tumor immunology and immunotherapy focus group and since November 2017, she has been a visiting researcher at Oxford University (​Department of Oncology, Cancer Therapeutics and mRNA Dysregulation).

Since October 2019, An has been appointed Assistant Professor at KU Leuven and is the head of the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy (www.LTII.be; www.facebook.com/LTIILeuven). The lab focuses on studying the immune biology of hard-to-treat cancers and develops combined immunotherapy based on these findings. Since 2014, An has guided/is guiding 10 PhD students (biomedical sciences, medicine) of which two of them obtained a professorship position in 2022, 21 master theses (biomedical sciences, medicine, pharmaceutical sciences), 35 bachelor papers (medicine) and 8 student-researchers (biomedical sciences, medicine, pharmaceutical sciences). In her current position, An is teaching immunotherapy at Biomedical Sciences and Medicine at KU Leuven, Belgium.