prof. dr. Gosse Adema

About Gosse Adema

Gosse J. Adema (13-11-1962, Dutch), holds the chair in Molecular Immunology at the Radiotherapy & OncoImmunology lab (ROI), Department of Radiation Oncology, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences (RIMLS), Radboud University Medical Centre (Radboudumc), in Nijmegen.

He obtained his Master degree in Biochemistry and his PhD degree from the University of Utrecht, working at the department of Physiological Chemistry. He held a position at the division of Immunology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute where he discovered the melanocyte differentiation antigen Gp100 and uncovered its recognition by the immune system. In 1994 he moved to the Radboudumc to start his own research group at the department of Tumor Immunology. In 1996-1997 he visited DNAX Research Institute, Palo Alto, USA (Dr J. de Vries, G. Zurawski and L. Lanier) He identified the Dendritic cell chemokine DC-CK-1 (CCL18) and the DC molecules DC-SCRIPT and DC-STAMP. In 2003 he became a full professor in Molecular Immunology at the department of Tumor Immunology. In the same year he became theme leader of the NCMLS theme 1 on Infection, Immunity and Tissue Regeneration (150 scientists). In 2017 he moved together with his research group to the department of Radiation Oncology, to start the new Radiotherapy & OncoImmunology lab (ROI) together with the Radiobiology Research group of Jan Bussink and Paul Span.

Gosse Adema received the Eijkman Winkler Medal of the University of Utrecht (2004), the VICI award from the Netherlands organization for Scientific Research (2006) and the Radboud University Educational Price (2011) for his work in the International Master program Molecular Mechanisms of Disease. He has written > 10 patents, supervised >20 PhD. students and has > 150 scientific publications. Since 2008 he is a member of the board of the Scientific Council of the Dutch Cancer Society. Furthermore, he is a member of the FWO (2009) expert panel for Microbiology and Immunology and the scientific committee of the French Cancer Institute (2009).

His current research interests focuses on the molecular analysis of professional antigen presenting dendritic cells and Myeloid and T-regulatory cells, and their function in the immune system in health and disease. Major current projects include i) functional analysis of DC-SCRIPT in dendritic cell biology and cancer, ii) pre-clinical mouse studies on cancer ablation by Radiotherapy or HIFU to create in situ cancer vaccines to induce the abscopal effect iii) development of immuno-combination therapies aiming to induce anti-tumor immune responses and to reverse the immune suppressive tumor microenvironment, including sialic acid blockade and HDAC inhibition. The knowledge gathered in the fundamental immunological studies is translated into clinical immunotherapy studies.

Breaktrough discoveries

• Molecular identification of gp100 as a melanoma tumor rejection antigen
• Prognostic significance and function of DC-SCRIPT in Cancer and the immune system.
• Molecular and functional identification of the chemokine DC-CK1 (CCL18)
• Development of the concept of in situ cancer vaccines following tumor ablation
• Discovery of Sialic Acid blockade as a novel anti-cancer therapy