Jan Paul Medema studied Chemistry in Leiden and completed his PhD studies at the University of Utrecht analyzing the role of the Ras GTPase GAP120 in the differentiation of keratinocytes. During his first few postdoctoral years at the German Cancer Center in Heidelberg, he worked on the signal transduction cascade induced by CD95/Fas/APO-1 and used this insight in cancer immunology during his postdoc at the LUMC in Leiden. There, he became an assistant and subsequently Associate Professor focusing more and more on the role of cell death escape mechanisms that tumors use to avoid immune surveillance and help escape from chemotherapy. In 2005, he moved to the AMC in Amsterdam to start the laboratory of Experimental Oncology and Radiobiology (LEXOR) and became a full Professor, department head, and in 2016, Scientific Director of the Cancer Center Amsterdam. Right now, he is the Head of Department Scientific Director and Head of Oncode Institute. His laboratory, LEXOR, houses multiple research teams that study cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, specifically colorectal, esophageal, and pancreatic cancer.