After obtaining my master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences in 2015, I started a PhD on pancreatic cancer cachexia at the Department of Surgery at Maastricht University. The main focus of my PhD research was to generate and characterize patient-derived 3D tumor cultures from patients with pancreatic cancer cachexia. Cachexia is a condition that causes extreme weight loss and muscle wasting. These patient-derived 3D tumor cultures provided a novel platform for studying the cachexia-inducing properties of pancreatic tumor cells and the mechanisms involved.
In 2019, I started as a post-doc researcher at Maastro, joining the division of Clinical Research, headed by Prof. Dirk De Ruysscher. I am involved in the translational lung cancer research program, focusing on the optimal combination of radiotherapy and anti-cancer medication in patients with lung cancer. I am the research coordinator of the IPON-1, IPON-2, and IPON-3 trial. The IPON-1 and IPON-2 trial includes blood-based analyses to identify prognostic blood-based profiles that can predict the outcome of patients with lung cancer. In the IPON-3 trial, patient-specific lung tumor tissue cultures are treated with radiotherapy and anti-cancer drugs to predict the outcome of patients after treatment.
With these trials, my goal is to keep on building the bridge between Maastro-lab and the clinic and to ultimately implement these models in the clinic to improve patient care.
Areas of expertise: lung cancer, translational research, clinical trials, blood-based analyses, patient-derived 3D culture models.