Benoit Van den Eynde

I am an expert in tumour immunology (MD, PhD) and I am currently a Member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and Director of the de Duve Institute, Belgium. I am also Full Professor of Immunology at the Université catholique de Louvain in Brussels and I train young scientists, including PhD students, medical students and postdoctoral Fellows from all over the world. I serve as member of several national and international scientific committees and editorial boards, and I am a full member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine.

I initially identified, together with Thierry Boon, the first tumour rejection antigen naturally expressed by mouse tumours and recognised by CD8 T lymphocytes. I subsequently identified a number of human tumour antigens recognised by CD8 T lymphocytes and I studied their processing, i.e. how they are produced by the cell. This led to the discovery of peptide splicing by the proteasome and of novel proteasome subtypes. I also described how tumours resist immune rejection by degrading tryptophan, through the expression of indoleamine dioxygenase (IDO) or tryptophan dioxygenase (TDO).

I am co-founder of iTeos Therapeutics, a biotechnology company based in Gosselies (Belgium) launched in 2012 as a spin-off of Ludwig Cancer Research. Its activity consists in developing small molecule immunomodulators for cancer treatment. Its first compound, an IDO inhibitor, is at the stage of clinical testing in cancer patients.

In 2016, I started a second group at Ludwig Oxford, to develop synergies in the tumour immunology landscape, focusing on cancer vaccines. I am also Professor of Tumour Immunology at the University of Oxford.

I have published more than 175 scientific papers and books and given more than 150 invited lectures at international meetings. My work has been cited more than 15,000 times in the scientific literature.