Our congratulations to Ludwig Lausanne’s Johanna Joyce, who in June was named president-elect of the European Association for Cancer Research and appointed to its Board of Directors at the organization’s 2024 Congress in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Johanna is an authority on the tumor microenvironment. Her lab has developed groundbreaking technologies to analyze the cellular geography and heterogeneity of tumors, making these tools freely available to the research community. Her team’s research has identified key differences between immune cells in primary and metastatic brain tumors and examined how they are biochemically manipulated and functionally altered in the tumor microenvironment. It has explored how these phenomena, along with unique properties of the brain tumor vasculature, might be harnessed to develop new therapies and strategies to effectively treat diverse brain cancers. A noted advocate for women in biomedical research, Johanna recently co-authored a commentary, published in Cell, that graphically illustrated in a striking scissor-shaped curve how gender disparities widen over successive stages of the scientific and academic career trajectory, with representation of women declining with rising seniority. Johanna also discussed many of these issues with us in our Women in Science publication, where she highlighted the benefit of dedicated mentorship by women for women, and the cultivation of a network of advocates for women in science.
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