Jos Jonkers performed his PhD research (on retroviral insertional mutagenesis screens to identify novel cancer genes in mouse lymphomas) in the group of Dr. Anton Berns at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. After his PhD, he became a postdoctoral fellow in the same lab, focusing on the generation of conditional mouse models for breast cancer. In 2002, he became a senior research associate in the group of Dr Allan Bradley at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, where he developed platforms for high-resolution array-CGH analysis of mouse tumors. In November 2002, he started his own research group at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. In September 2008, he was appointed as permanent staff member at the Division of Molecular Biology of the Netherlands Cancer Institute.The focus of his research group is on the genetic dissection of human breast cancer through the use of Cre/loxP-based mouse models for p53-mutated breast cancer, BRCA1- and BRCA2-associated hereditary breast cancer, and E-cadherin-mutated invasive lobular breast cancer. These models are used to (i) investigate genotype-phenotype relations in mammary tumorigenesis; (ii) identify genetic changes underlying breast carcinogenesis; (iii) assess the role of tumor-initiating cells in breast cancer metastasis and therapy resistance (iv) study the role of inate and adaptive immunity in breast cancer development; (iv) study therapy response and drug resistance in specific breast cancer subtypes.Specialties: Breast cancer research, research management