Our collaborative study with the Kops laboratory is published in Nature Genetics. We performed detailed live-cell microscopy on patient-derived tumor organoids from colorectal cancer patients, to study chromosomal instability levels and cell fate options after erroneous divisions in correlation to karyotype evolution. Among others we show that chromosomal instability is Read more
Fantastic work from the Kloosterman and Clevers laboratories in Nature Medicine about the development of a new platform for the culture of ovarian cancer organoids. Nizar worked hard on the drug screening of these organoids to support the claim that these organoids can assist in personalized therapy design as well Read more
Our new study is published in Oncotarget, featuring a CRISPR-screen to test the impact of RASGAP deficiencies on anti-EGFR therapy-resistance in colorectal cancer. Fantastic work by Jasmin to make genetic knock-out organoids and optimize biochemical analysis of the MAPK pathway in these models
Together with the laboratories of Madelon Maurice and Onno Kranenburg, we received a TOP grant of €675k from ZonMW, the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development. We aim to understand why seemingly identical combinations of genetic alterations (mutations) can lead to different forms of colorectal cancer in terms of Read more
We welcome 2 new Postdocs to join our team. Michiel Boekhout finished his first postdoc at MSKCC in NY, USA, studying double-strand break formation in DNA during meiosis (Keeney lab). Suzanne van der Horst studied stem cells in C. elegans using real-time imaging and CRISPR-mediated genetic knock-ins (Van den Heuvel Read more
Hugo received a prestigious ERC starting grant (€1,5M) from the EU in support of our studies to understand the cause and consequence of diverging behaviors between different tumor cell types. The project will rely heavily on real-time monitoring of cell type specification in tumors (organoids), as well as quantitative measurements Read more
Integrated multi-omics analyses of organoid model systems to study lineage specification in the intestinal epithelium (Mol Syst Biol). Great work, spearheaded by the lab of Michiel Vermeulen, RIMLS, Nijmegen.
Together with the laboratories of Young Seok Ju (KAIST, Daejeon, SK) and Bon-Kyoung Koo (IMBA, Vienna, Austria), we received a Young Investigator grant ($1M) from the Human Frontier Science Program. We will study hyper mutagenesis on the course of tumor evolution in gastric cancers.
Official launch of Oncode Institute. The institute will support fundamental research in our fight against cancer. Hugo is proud to be a founding scientist of Oncode as junior investigator.
We developed and validated a synthetic enhancer/promoter element that provides specific transcriptional activity in intestinal stem cells. The reporter, called STAR, is a user-friendly system to monitor and manipulate stem cells in human organoids. Among others, we documented that cell fate plasticity in tumors is an inherited trait from normal Read more