Jan-Willem van de Loo, PhD

Jan-Willem van de Loo joined the European Commission in 2003. He is a Senior Expert on cancer research and innovation. As the Cancer Theme Lead within the Horizon Europe Cancer Mission he’s responsible for science and stakeholders. In 2021, he led a team co-creating the Mission on Cancer. Other policy initiatives include contributions to the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, public-public and public-private R&I partnerships. He has extensive experience with collaborative project management, international cancer research and innovation policy activities and stakeholder interactions. He graduated in Biology at the University of Utrecht in 1991, following a year at the UW-Madison Medical School Graduate Program. He worked as a junior scientist on blood coagulation at Sanquin, Amsterdam and obtained his PhD in cell biology at the Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Leuven in 1999. He held three postdoctoral positions in cancer research, including a Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellowship at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan.

Updated: October 2025