Ton Schumacher

Ton focuses on the formation of novel companies in the immunology and immuno-oncology space. He is a senior member at The Netherlands Cancer Institute and professor of Immunotechnology at Leiden University. He was founder of AIMM Therapeutics and T cell factory (acquired by Kite Pharma), and has served as CSO of Kite Pharma EU. For his work on T cell recognition in human cancer he received, amongst others, The Amsterdam Inventor Award, Queen Wilhelmina Cancer Research Award, Meyenburg Cancer Research Award, and William B. Coley Award. Ton carried out his Ph.D. research with Hidde Ploegh, describing the rules of antigen presentation by MHC molecules, and carried out post-doctoral work with Peter Kim at The Whitehead Institute.