Maria Heinz successfully defended her thesis called ‘Cellular heterogeneity during metastatic colonization of colorectal cancer’. Her thesis was a tour de force at a complex topic, but she excellent and showed great expertise of the topic and science in general. Both her social coffee glue and intellect will be missed. Read more
Yannik successfully defended his thesis called ‘Karyotype diversification in colorectal cancer’. His PhD trajectory was co-supervised by Prof. dr. Leon Terstappen of the University of Twente. Yannik will continue to pursue his interest in CRISPR editing of patient models within the infrastructure of Roche Institute for Translational Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland). Read more
Ever wondered what the cellular trajectory is of a cancer cell metastasizing to the liver? Maria finished a tour de force @Cancer Research, mapping shapeshifting cancer stem cell phenotypes with high precision during metastasis formation. Ooh…, regarding epithelial self-organization in organoids: it is conserved between mice, human, normal and cancer Read more
Super happy with this technology, foremost as we now can make (complex) knock-ins in human organoids on weekly basis. Major advantages are no off-targets. As a consequence, you can pool all knock-in cells to expedite culture expansion and/or maintenance of polyclonality (in case of tumors). Targeting vectors enable one-step cloning Read more
Proud on this fantastic publication in Nat Genet. We established 3D Live-Seq: the integration of live-cell imaging of tumor organoids and whole-genome sequencing of each imaged cell. Combined, these super powerful technologies enable the exact reconstruction how evolving tumor genomes change and mutate over consecutive cell generations. Mapping the tempo Read more
— I am one of the thankful recipients of the NWO VIDI grants 2021 (Dutch Research Council). VIDIs are for early career scientist to launch their successful independent research track to the next level. I will use this funding to explore the early-stages of colon cancer, among others to improve Read more
Wow, so excited about this work that reads like a trilogy. First, we re-engineered a fluorescent FRET biosensor for ERK into an improved version EKAREN5 (available at Addgene). Second, we established quantitative real-time ERK-FRET measurements in all tumor cells of drug-challenged organoids. As last, we reveal that upstream EGFR activity Read more
Much delayed by COVID, but Lotte was finally allowed to defend her thesis. Opponents and guests were virtually present, while Lotte filled the empty room with great display of her expertise and knowledge!
Yes, he is different! We welcome the first MD in our group! Maarten will carry out a phase1/2 trial to test a new therapy against KRAS mutant colon cancer. In parallel he will test organoids as companion diagnostics. Maarten will be co-supervised by Jeanine Roodhart, medical oncologist in our hospital.
COVID lockdown provided a window to reexamine current literature regarding stem cell function and environmental control. Joris took the lead and shaped his long-term interest into a new review.