Professor Ilse Rooman heads the Laboratory for Medical and Molecular Oncology, at the Free University of Brussels (VUB), dedicated to basic and translational research on pancreatic cancer. She has a long standing interest in pancreatic cancer, mostly on tumour development, and has had an international career with long term stays in Spain and Australia. She also participated in the work of the International Cancer Genome Consortium. In addition, she also is Director of the pancreatic cancer programme at the Anticancer Fund.