Amsterdam UMC

Louis Vermeulen MD PhD studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam. In 2010 he obtained his PhD (cum laude) on the topic of cancer stem cells in colorectal cancer. He spent several years at the Cancer Research UK institute in Cambridge as a postdoctoral Fellow. Louis trained as a medical oncologist and established his independent research group at the Cancer Center Amsterdam of the Amsterdam UMC. Currently he is Vice President and head of Discovery Oncology at Genentech inc., and professor of molecular oncology at the Amsterdam UMC – University of Amsterdam.

• NYSCF Robertson Stem Cell Investigator Award

• ERC Starting Grant (2015);ERC Consolidator Grant (2021)

• Vidi (2015) ;Vici (2021)

• Ammodo-KNAW Life Science Award

1. Molecular characterization of colorectal cancer related peritoneal metastatic disease.
   Lenos KJ, Bach S, Ferreira Moreno L, Ten Hoorn S, Sluiter NR, Bootsma S, Vieira Braga FA, Nijman LE, van den Bosch T, Miedema DM, van Dijk E, Ylstra B, Kulicke R, Davis FP, Stransky N, Smolen GA, Coebergh van den Braak RRJ, IJzermans JNM, Martens JWM, Hallam S, Beggs AD, Kops GJPL, Lansu N, Bastiaenen VP, Klaver CEL, Lecca MC, El Makrini K, Elbers CC, Dings MPG, van Noesel CJM, Medema JP, Koster J, Koens L, Punt CJA, Tanis PJ, de Hingh IH, Bijlsma MF, Tuynman JB, Vermeulen L.Nat Commun. 2022 Aug 4;13(1):4443. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-32198-z.

2. Apc-mutant cells act as supercompetitors in intestinal tumour initiation.
   van Neerven SM, de Groot NE, Nijman LE, Scicluna BP, van Driel MS, Lecca MC, Warmerdam DO, Kakkar V, Moreno LF, Vieira Braga FA, Sanches DR, Ramesh P, Ten Hoorn S, Aelvoet AS, van Boxel MF, Koens L, Krawczyk PM, Koster J, Dekker E, Medema JP, Winton DJ, Bijlsma MF, Morrissey E, Léveillé N, Vermeulen L.Nature. 2021 Jun;594(7863):436-441. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03558-4. Epub 2021 Jun 2.

3. Continuous clonal labeling reveals uniform progenitor potential in the adult exocrine pancreas.
   Lodestijn SC, van den Bosch T, Nijman LE, Moreno LF, Schlingemann S, Sheraton VM, van Neerven SM, Koning JJ, Vieira Braga FA, Paauw NJ, Lecca MC, Lenos KJ, Morrissey E, Miedema DM, Winton DJ, Bijlsma MF, Vermeulen L.Cell Stem Cell. 2021 Nov 4;28(11):2009-2019.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2021.07.004. Epub 2021 Aug 5.

4. Spatiotemporal regulation of clonogenicity in colorectal cancer xenografts.
   van der Heijden M, Miedema DM, Waclaw B, Veenstra VL, Lecca MC, Nijman LE, van Dijk E, van Neerven SM, Lodestijn SC, Lenos KJ, de Groot NE, Prasetyanti PR, Arricibita Varea A, Winton DJ, Medema JP, Morrissey E, Ylstra B, Nowak MA, Bijlsma MF, Vermeulen L.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Mar 26;116(13):6140-6145. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1813417116. Epub 2019 Mar 8.

5. Stem cell functionality is microenvironmentally defined during tumour expansion and therapy response in colon cancer.
   Lenos KJ, Miedema DM, Lodestijn SC, Nijman LE, van den Bosch T, Romero Ros X, Lourenço FC, Lecca MC, van der Heijden M, van Neerven SM, van Oort A, Leveille N, Adam RS, de Sousa E Melo F, Otten J, Veerman P, Hypolite G, Koens L, Lyons SK, Stassi G, Winton DJ, Medema JP, Morrissey E, Bijlsma MF, Vermeulen L.Nat Cell Biol. 2018 Oct;20(10):1193-1202. doi: 10.1038/s41556-018-0179-z. Epub 2018 Sep 3.

• 2009: Dutch Society of Gastroenterology Tytgat award

• 2007: VICI laureate of the Dutch Science Organization

• 2002: C.J.Kok prize

• 2000: VIDI laureate of the Dutch Science Organization

• 1996: Dutch Cancer Society Fellowship

• Honorary Professorship Brunel University London, UK

1. Ramesh, P., Di Franco, S., Atencia Taboada, L., Zhang, L.,…..& Medema, J.P. (2022). BCL-XL inhibition induces an FGFR4-mediated rescue response in colorectal cancer. Cell Reports, 38(7):110374.

2. Ramesh, P., Lannagan, T.R.M., Jackstadt, R,, Atencia Taboada, L., Lansu, N.,….& Medema, J.P. (2021) BCL-XL is crucial for progression through the adenoma-to-carcinoma sequence of colorectal cancer. Cell Death Differentiation, 28(12):3282-3296.

3. Linnekamp, J.F., Hooff, S.R.V., Prasetyanti, P.R., Kandimalla, R., Buikhuisen, J.Y.,…..& Medema JP. (2018)Consensus molecular subtypes of colorectal cancer are recapitulated in in vitro and in vivo models. Cell Death Differentiation, 25(3):616-633.

4. Guinney, J., Dienstmann, R., Wang, X., de Reyniès, A., Schlicker, A., …., Medema, J.P.* &….. Tejpar S.* (2015). The consensus molecular subtypes of colorectal cancer. Nature Medicine, 21(11):1350-6.

5. Felipe De Sousa, E. M., Wang, X., Jansen, M., Fessler, E., Trinh, A., De Rooij, L. P., ... Medema J.P.* & Vermeulen, L.* (2013). Poor-prognosis colon cancer is defined by a molecularly distinct subtype and develops from serrated precursor lesions. Nature Medicine, 19(5), 614.

6. Vermeulen, L., Felipe De Sousa, E. M., Van Der Heijden, M., Cameron, K., De Jong, J. H., Borovski, T., ... & Medema J.P. (2010). Wnt activity defines colon cancer stem cells and is regulated by the microenvironment. Nature Cell Biology, 12(5), 468.

*shared senior authorships

Sarah Derks is a medical oncologist at Amsterdam UMC in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She did her PhD at the pathology department of the Maastricht University Medical Center and residency training Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology Fellowship at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam. After acquiring a translational research fellowship from the Dutch Cancer Society, she carried out post-doctoral training (2014-2017) in the laboratory of Dr. Adam Bass at Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center in Boston, MA, USA, working on a variety of genome and immune oriented studies in gastroesophageal adenocarcinomas (GEA).

Having returned to the Netherlands Dr Derks started her own research group with a focus on how GEA cells shape their immune microenvironment and how a pre-existing immune infiltrate influences response to standard therapy with the ultimate goal to identify novel targeted immunomodulatory strategies and improve survival of patients with this deadly disease. Her lab currently focusses on how genome features such chromosomal instability, intratumor heterogeneity and upregulation of oncogenic or immunomodulatory genes influences the immune microenvironment and thereby response to therapy. As a physician scientist she has the unique opportunity to use fresh tumor specimen to study the disease that is actually living in the patient and use this tissue to test new therapeutic approaches. Besides laboratory oriented studies she is a PI on 2 investigator initiated trials testing novel GEA treatment strategies.

Sarah Derks is member of the Gastro-Intestinal Faculty group from the European Society of Medical Oncology, member of the Research board of the Amsterdam UMC, and Executive Board member of the Immuno-Oncology Center at Amsterdam UMC.

• 2017 NWO veni

• 2016 Young investigator award American Society of Clinical Oncology

• 2015 Wong Familiy Award in Translational Oncology

• 2012 Translational Research Fellowship Dutch Cancer Society

• 2004 Kootstra Talent Fellowship

1. van den Bosch T, Derks S, Miedema DM. Chromosomal Instability, Selection and Competition: Factors That Shape the Level of Karyotype Intra-Tumor Heterogeneity. Cancers (Basel) 2022. doi:10.3390/CANCERS14204986.

2. de Klerk LK, Goedegebuure RSA, van Grieken NCT et al. Molecular profiles of response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in oesophageal cancers to develop personalized treatment strategies. Mol Oncol 2021; 154:901–914

3. Goedegebuure RSA, Harrasser M, de Klerk LK et al. Pre-treatment tumor-infiltrating T cells influence response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in esophageal adenocarcinoma. Oncoimmunology 2021. doi:10.1080/2162402X.2021.1954807.

4. de Klerk LK, Patel AK, Derks S et al. Original research: Phase II study of pembrolizumab in refractory esophageal cancer with correlates of response and survival. J Immunother Cancer 2021; 99:2472.

5. Derks S, de Klerk LK, Xu X et al. Characterizing diversity in the tumor-immune microenvironment of distinct subclasses of gastroesophageal adenocarcinomas. Annals of Oncology 2020; 31:1011–1020.

6. Pectasides E, Stachler MD, Derks S et al. Genomic Heterogeneity as a Barrier to Precision Medicine in Gastroesophageal Adenocarcinoma. CANCER DISCOVERY | 2018. doi:10.1158/2159-8290.CD-17-0395.

7. Kim J, Bowlby R, Mungall AJ et al. Integrated genomic characterization of oesophageal carcinoma. Nature 2017 541:7636 2017; 5417636:169–175.

8. Derks S, Nason KS, Liao X et al. Epithelial PD-L2 expression marks Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal Adenocarcinoma. Cancer Immunol Res 2015; 310:1123–1129.