Projects
A computational pipeline for highly sensitive profiling of tissue leakage proteins in liquid biopsies Ghent University
A biomarker is a factor found in the body that indicates the presence of disease, ideally at an early stage. The detection of biomarkers in liquid biopsies such as blood is becoming increasingly important in a clinical context. Often, disease-specific proteins in liquid biopsies are tissue leakage proteins (TLPs), derived from tissues directly affected by the disease and thus early signs of this disease. However, such TLPs tend to occur at ...
Advancing Liquid Biopsies for Monitoring and Personalized Treatment of Children with Neuroblastoma Ghent University
The embryonal tumor, neuroblastoma, accounts for 11% of all cancer-related deaths in children. Its heterogeneous tumor biology creates clinical variability spanning spontaneous regression to rapid metastasizing progression. Long-term survival of high-risk disease remains poor, with <40% overall survival after first-line treatment and <10% after relapse, despite considerable international efforts to improve treatment over the last ...
Morphological Uterus Sonographic Assessment (MUSA) project: Preoperative diagnosis of myometrial lesions using imaging (MUSA-1) and liquid biopsies (trans-MUSA). KU Leuven
Malignant myometrial lesions or sarcomas are highly aggressive and require radical surgery in an oncological centre. It is of utmost importance to accurately identify sarcomas, not only because any delay in diagnosis is associated with lower survival rates, but also because the inadvertent morcellation of a sarcoma may lead to diffuse intraabdominal spreading of malignant tissue and hence to a dramatic worsening of the patient’s prognosis. Our ...
The biology of tumor-derived extracellular RNA in liquid biopsies Ghent University
The discovery that cancer cells actively and passively release their content into the blood stream has opened enormous opportunities for characterizing cancer cells without the need for surgery to access tumor tissue. Instead, a simple drop of blood is sufficient to detect and characterize cancer cells inside a patientU+2019s body. The use of circulating DNA molecules has spurred this field, but the study of circulating RNA molecules also ...
Better control and treatment of immune-mediated diseases by exploring the universe of microenvironment imposed tissue signatures and their correlates in liquid biopsies KU Leuven
Immune-mediated diseases (IMIDs) are an increasing medical burden in industrialized countries worldwide. IMIDs are characterized by an enormous heterogeneity with regard to disease outcome and response to targeted therapies, which currently cannot be adequately anticipated to tailor individual patient management. Hence, mechanistic understanding of this heterogeneity and biomarkers predictive for disease control and therapy response over time ...
Tumor characterization and disease follow-up in multiple myeloma by (epi) genetic profiling using liquid biopsies UZBrussel
During the last decade, there has been an impressive progress in the
treatment modalities of multiple myeloma (MM). However, MM is still
an incurable disease and patients become refractory to treatment at
some point in the disease evolution. MM is characterized by a patchy
tumor infiltration pattern in the bone marrow, implicating that analysis
of single bone marrow samples can lead to an underestimation of the
...
treatment modalities of multiple myeloma (MM). However, MM is still
an incurable disease and patients become refractory to treatment at
some point in the disease evolution. MM is characterized by a patchy
tumor infiltration pattern in the bone marrow, implicating that analysis
of single bone marrow samples can lead to an underestimation of the
...
Screening and early detection of colorectal cancer and breast cancer in liquid biopsies using a newly-developed multi-regional methylation assay. University of Antwerp
Center for Oncological Research (CORE), Social Epidemiology & Health Policy (SEHPO), Human molecular genetics
Colorectal cancer (CRC) and breast cancer are amongst the most common and deadliest cancers worldwide. Early detection through current screening programs for both cancers have reduced mortality, but important limitations of these methods, such as limited sensitivity, limited specificity and invasiveness, remain. There is a need for a new, minimally-invasive, cost-effective and very sensitive diagnostic test for screening and early cancer ...
Single cell immune profiling to improve patient stratification via liquid biopsies for cancer immunotherapy KU Leuven
Cancer immunotherapy using immune-checkpoint blockade (ICB) has created a paradigm shift in the treatment of advanced-stage cancers. One of the major limitations of ICB, however, is that it provides durable clinical responses only in a small fraction of patients. Moreover, to date, there is no reliable method to predict which patients will respond to ICB. Finally, many combined ICB therapies are currently being tested in numerous clinical ...
Identification of potentially actionable genetic alterations in solid and liquid biopsies of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. University of Antwerp
Center for Oncological Research (CORE), Human molecular genetics, Molecular Imaging, Pathology, Radiotherapy & Oncology (MIPRO)
There still is a large unmet need to improve the diagnosis, treatment and treatment monitoring of patients suffering from Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (MPM). In other cancer types, the detection of genomic alterations, resulting in the identification of actionable or prognostic biomarkers, has been proven helpful to improve treatment. Hence, the objectives of this research project are: (i) to gain insight into recurrent, actionable genetic ...