We are pleased to announce that ten excellent Junior Investigators and their research groups are invited to join Oncode Institute per January 1st, 2024. They were selected out of 72 applicants, based on the quality of their science, expertise and potential to contribute to the mission of Oncode Institute to accelerate breakthrough discoveries and speed up their translation into new diagnostics and treatments for cancer patients. These new positions were made possible by donations via our Major Donor Program.
Oncode Institute grows to 62 research groups, spread over 13 universities and research institutes throughout the Netherlands. We are excited about the expertise the new investigators will bring to the institute in basic oncology research, with strong links to translational and clinical research, and enabling new technologies – including AI, protein design and biophysics. With the current research team and new members, Oncode Institute has an excellent, diverse and committed team of investigators.
Jan Paul Medema, Head of Oncode Institute and Scientific Director, says: “We are pleased to see so much young talent in both fundamental and translational cancer research in the Netherlands, and I’d like to thank all researchers that took the effort to apply for a position within Oncode Institute. We feel very fortunate to be able to incorporate these researchers into Oncode Institute. The innovation power and plans of these new Oncode Investigators brings new momentum to the institute.”
Clare Isacke, Academic Dean at the Institute of Cancer Research (London), member of Oncode Institute's International Advisory Board and Chair of the selection committee, says: “We were impressed by the high quality of all candidates. We are proud that we can invite a multidisciplinary group of young researchers to join this wonderful institute. Their diversity in background and expertise helps the mission of Oncode Institute to focus on cancer research from different perspectives.”
The candidates and their research
Kristina Ganzinger – AMOLF
Kristina’s work revolves around developing high end microscopy to image cell membranes at a single molecule resolution. This allows her to reveal mechanisms of signal transduction and activation in immune cells. She plans to study temporal and spatial regulation of immune cell signaling at molecular detail in (model) cell – cell contacts.
Joep Grootjans – Amsterdam UMC
Joep combines his clinical work as gastroenterologist with laboratory research, which focuses on the interplay between inflammation and cancer. He is especially interested in the metastatic process towards the peritoneal cavity. At the Amsterdam UMC, Joep has set up the clinical studies to study human peritoneal metastasized cancer, as well as pre-clinical models to translate findings and ultimately to set up clinical trials. Joep is planning to study why peritoneal metastases are resistant to current systemic and immunotherapy, to find novel treatment opportunities for this devastating disease.
Maike Hansen - Radboud University
Maike has a background in chemical biology and biophysics. Her research focuses on studying gene expression regulation across a range of model systems. She now aims to understand how gene expression variability is regulated in tumor cells and the role of cell to cell differences in the occurrence of chemotherapy resistance.
Geert Litjens – Radboudumc
Geert is a full professor of AI for multi-modal medical imaging at Radboudumc. His research focuses on using AI algorithms to improve diagnostics and prognostics for patients through the increase of efficiency and accuracy of clinicians. Within Oncode he aims to leverage AI to improve the discovery of developmental pathways of cancer and identify biomarkers that can aid in therapeutic decisions.
Sebastian Pomplun - Leiden University
Sebastian is highly specialized in the chemical design of novel drugs that can be employed to target what are currently considered “undruggable” proteins. During the past years, Sebastian has developed various classes of advanced therapeutic modalities, aiming to make the undruggable druggable. He has also developed novel techniques enabling to screen enormous libraries with innovative chemical matter to identify novel bioactive compounds.
Maria Rodriguez Colman – UMC Utrecht
Maria’s research line focuses on the metabolism of cancer cells that can be exploited for therapy. She will investigate the molecular mechanisms on how nutrition and metabolism have impact on cancer development, therapy efficacy and she will study the vulnerabilities of cancer cells to metabolic interference.
Danny Sahtoe – Hubrecht Institute
Danny’s research interests lie in the development of protein design approaches. His lab applies these approaches to answer biological research questions, and to create the basic building blocks for synthetic biology applications. As an expert in computational protein design, Danny wants to design advanced protein systems that will be part of next generation smart research tools and therapeutics to combat cancer.
Nitika Taneja - Erasmus MC
Nitika's research focuses on understanding the fundamental principles of 3D chromatin organization during replication stress, how these principles change during cancer development and their role in stabilizing DNA replication despite chemotherapy-induced DNA damage, which can both hinder chemotherapy efficacy and promote cancer formation.
Daniela Thommen – Netherlands Cancer Institute
Daniela has a strong emphasis on immunotherapy in which she has set up technology to study anti-tumor immune responses in patient biopsies. By keeping these alive in the laboratory, she investigates which features of a tumor determine therapy success and develops new treatments for resistant patients.
Sebastiaan van Heesch – Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology
Sebastiaan’s research focuses on very small proteins. He studies the biology of these micro-proteins, but also has a keen eye for translations into immunotherapy. He aims to study changes in the expression of micro-proteins during the development of cancer. One way he does this is by looking at the steps in the production of proteins: from DNA to RNA to protein. Together with his group, he also wants to look at ways to use this yet undiscovered set of proteins for treatments for children with cancer.