Susanne studied Biomedical Sciences at the University of Leiden and received her PhD from the University of Amsterdam for her research on B-cell growth, differentiation and apoptosis (cell death). Following her PhD, she continued her work on cancer cells as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and then the Netherlands Cancer Institute. Susanne was appointed full professor in 2013 at the UMC Utrecht; is the director of the PhD program, Clinical and Translational Oncology; and is the science coordinator for the Selective Utrecht Medical Master program.