What more motivation do we need than the enormous number of lost lives because of cancer? It urges us to put our minds together and develop new knowledge and methods to outsmart cancer. Impacting patient’s lives is a very ambitious goal. To help patients survive cancer and improve their quality of life, we need breakthrough innovations in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. At the same time, we are committed to contributing to a more affordable health care system. One of the keys to achieve these goals is collaboration.

Oncode Institute breaks with the competitive model of science. Sharing knowledge instead of protecting it, bringing clinicians and fundamental scientists closer together and bridging the gap between industry and academia. We cannot predict the outcome, but one thing is for sure: the challenge of cancer is too big to beat single-handedly, and we are determined to change the game.

During our first year we laid the foundations for Oncode Institute. Currently, we are at full strength with 62 Oncode Investigators at 12 institutes, we have a dedicated team to support research and valorization and we have brought together our scientists through various events and an online community platform.

With this digital magazine we will keep you up to date about the highlights of Oncode. In this first edition you will find expert opinions from Oncode Investigator Emile Voest and patient-advocate Stefan Gijssels on the drug development pipeline in oncology, get to know Monika Wolkers, one of our new Oncode Investigators, and get an update on the output of our institute.

Our mission is to outsmart cancer and impact patient’s lives. With this magazine we hope to show you the many ways in which we try to reach this goal.