Kees Melief is the founding father of Cancer Immunology in the Netherlands. Already in 1985, he established the tumor immunology group at Leiden University Medical Center, and successfully integrated basic immunology and cancer research.
Professor Melief and his research team achieved many ground-breaking and award-winning discoveries on the question how to mobilize the immune system to effectively fight cancer.
Since 2011 Kees Melief is also Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of ISA Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company based on his invention of synthetic long peptides (SLP) as superior cancer vaccines. With his SLP Stream Team, Kees Melief is key opinion leader in field of cancer immunotherapy.