François Kuonen obtained his MD in 2006 and his PhD in cancer biology in 2010 from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He subsequently completed his clinical training in dermatology and dermatosurgery at the Lausanne University Hospital.

After a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University (Palo Alto, USA), he returned  in 2019 to the Department of Dermatology at Lausanne University Hospital, where he serves as Head of the Dermatosurgery Unit.

His research group focuses on elucidating how transcriptional plasticity drives progression and therapeutic resistance in skin cancers.