News from the PPOL lab
PPOL represent at the 2024 Villa Joep Scientific Progress Meeting
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Fien, Kaat, Kaat and Affy attented the 2024 Villa Joep Scientific Progress Meeting in Utrecht (The Netherlands), where Affy gave an update about our AURKA project, funded by Villa Joep.
The agenda was packed with interesting presentations that clearly showed how we are progressing in the fight against neuroblastoma. it was a highly positive, productive, and successful day. 13 December 2024 |
Follow us on Instagram!
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You can now follow our lab's activities on instagram by scanning the QR code or clicking here. 19 November 2024 |
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Kaat & Nadine inspired young teenagers via TAJO workshops
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Our team leaders Kaat and Nadine visited the high school in St. Amandsberg. Hand in hand with the TAJO team, we held a workshop for young people with vulnerable backgrounds, to encourage their passion for scientific research. Learn more about the TAJO initiative here. 16 November 2024 |
Welcome Kaat & Rizwan!
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Kaat De Wever and Rizwan Ahmad started their PhD journey at the PPOL lab. Kaat will be involved in the AURKA project, while Rizwan will focus on the bioinformatics of the our spatial-omics projects. 4 November 2024 |
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Lisa obtained her second YIPOC grant!
In collaboration with vzw Kinderkankerfonds, CRIG provides research grants for young (postdoctoral and/or senior doctoral) cancer researchers to initiate potentially high-risk and innovative cancer research projects. In this 16th call, our postdoc Lisa was awarded her second YIPOC grant to boost the start of our new CPSF3 project:
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Genomic profiling has demonstrated that NBs are mutationally silent with a typical pattern of highly recurrent segmental chromosomal imbalances. In search for novel druggable targets, we performed an integrative genomics analysis of DNA copy number and gene expression data of a large series of primary NB cases allowing us to identify ‘Cleavage and Polyadenylation Specific Factor 3’ (CPSF3) as a potential new therapeutic target. Notably, CPSF3 was recently shown to be a key druggable target in amongst others ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, acute myeloid leukemia and Ewing sarcoma. In this project, Lisa will further investigate whether CPSF3 is indeed a promising druggable target in high-risk neuroblastoma.
29 October 2024 |
PPOL present at EMBO Workshop about spatial omics
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Kaat, Frank, Annelies, Lasse & Noah attended the EMBO workshop meeting in Rome on "Spatial Omics and complexities of human diseases: Resolve and Solve" to get an update on the fundamental technological and computational advances and to foster collaborations and further breakthroughs in this exciting Omics confluence. Lasse, Noah and Annelies showcased their projects through interesting poster presentations! 23-25 October 2024 |
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The "NBAtlas" is online!
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! New paper alert !
In recent years the advent of ‘single-cell atlases’ has provided an enormously valuable source of knowledge for scientific research. With a reference transcriptome atlas of a given tissue, researchers can get a detailed picture of the different cell types and subtypes at the level of individual cells. However, it is challenging to collect sufficient patient material for a comprehensive atlas for rare tissues such as neuroblastoma. As a solution to this, our doctoral fellow Noah Bonine (et al.), collected data from several studies and international collaborations to obtain a large-scale collection in this way. By bringing all of these data together, the ‘NBAtlas’ was formed, a neuroblastoma atlas with more than 360000 cells from 61 patients. Thanks to in-depth biological research on this, a catalog of the various tumor and immune cells in neuroblastoma tumors was created. 22 October 2024 |
Retirement party prof. Frank Speleman
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On October 11th, we headed to "De Wilde Brouwers" in Ghent to celebrate the official retirement of our group leader prof. Frank Speleman. He will still be involved as a volunteer in different PPOL projects. 11 October 2024 |
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Supporting Olivia Fund at their annual 'Gala concert' fundraising
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Kaat, Bram, Ellen and Liselot represented our PPOL lab at the annual Gala Concert organised by the trustees of the Olivia Fund to benefit innovative cancer research for children. (And ran into road and cyclo-cross racer Wout Van Aert!) Learn more about the Olivia Fund here. The Olivia Fund supports various projects within our team, including the research of Doctoral Fellow Deyna Keppens and the TEARDRoP consortium. 7 October 2024 |
Our group leader prof. Frank Speleman on national television!
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PPOL co-group leader prof. Frank Speleman explained the importance of miRNA regulation in diseases (including cancer) on national television in the context of the Nobel Prize in Medicine 2024, jointly awarded to Ambros and Ruykun.
7 October 2024 |
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PPOL present at "Relay for life" in Deinze!
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The Relay for Life is the solidarity movement organised by the Foundation against Cancer in which teams move/walk/run in a major 24-hour event. With the money raised the Foundation against Cancer finances cancer research and projects that contribute to the well-being of people with cancer and their loved ones through Relay for Life Grants.
Postdoctoral fellow Lisa Depestel and doctoral fellow Soetkin Leys have put on their running shoes and joined the team of CRIG and Kankercentrum UZ Gent in Deinze! In total, this fundraising event raised 73 525 euro! 6 October 2024 |
Lab teambuilding in Poperinge
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To foster the collaboration, trust, and good relationships within our team, we organized a nice teambuilding event in Poperinge to reflect on our research, our projects and the way our team operates. Next to that, we also had some fun team-building activities! 1-2 October 2024 |
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Frank & Kaat joined the CRIG PI retreat
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Together with more than 30 principal investigators & business developers, our group leaders Frank and Kaat joined the first "Principle Investigators' retreat organised by CRIG. In this way, they helped to shape the future of CRIG and took advantage of the event to have both formal and informal networking opportunities to make new or straighten old research connections. 18-19 September 2024 |
Our work on the CR-1-31-B rocaglate in NB is now on BioRxiv!
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! New paper alert !
We performed an in-depth evaluation of phenotypic and molecular responses following exposure of neuroblastoma cells to the rocaglate CR-1-31-B, scrutinizing its mode-of-action through integrative ribosome footprinting and shotgun proteome profiling. We could show that CR-1-31-B significantly reduces tumor growth in vivo without apparent toxicity. By means of combined ribosome footprinting and transcriptome analysis we uncovered that CR-1-31-B treatment downregulates translation efficiencies of several major neuroblastoma dependencies including MYCN, CCND1 and ALK as well as factors involved in the G2/M checkpoint. 30 August 2024 |
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Plasticentre supports our sarcoma research
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As part of the ConSaRGhent consortium, which brings together Ghent cancer researchers who conduct research on sarcomas, we received a wonderful check of 6 164 EUR from Plasticentre!
Tania Devoet from Plasticentre came to hand over the check, together with her friend Veerle Cnudde and her son Warre Thomas, who was confronted with Ewing sarcoma last year. With this donation, they want to further support research into this rare cancer! Through his nonprofit organization Warre's Hope, Warre is organizing many other initiatives and even has his own podcast, where he explains in simple language for children what has happened to him. You can listen to this podcast via Spotify of YouTube, or follow Warre on Instagram (@hope_de_podcast) 27 August 2024 |
New review about replicative stress in neuroblastoma
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! New paper alert !
Our group leader Kaat Durinck (in collaboration with Meredith Erwin from the Department of Pediatrics, Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada) wrote an excellent review summarizing the latest insights regarding alterations in DDR pathway genes that have been identified in neuroblastoma. These alterations are currently being evaluated as pediatric biomarkers, while more and more pediatric trials of DDR pathway inhibitors (PARP, ATR, WEE1, CHK1) are ongoing. 8 July 2024 |
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PPOL represent at the Small Animal Model symposium 2024
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The Zebrafish Core Facility Ghent (ZFG) organised a Small Animal Model Symposium the 14th of May in Ghent: "Zebrafish, Drosophila and Xenopus: Small but Mighty Animal Models for Diverse Research Applications".
Our team member Soetkin Leys gave a nive presentation about our zebrafish work: "Modeling cancer drivers and co-drivers in zebrafish". Via this way, we want to explicitly thank Villa Joep and Kinderkankerfonds to support our zebrafish research! 14 May 2024 |
Celebrating Renewed Collaborations!
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We are thrilled to announce the rekindling of connections between the neuroblastoma research teams in Ghent and Berlin! By joining forces once again, we aim to foster innovative research, exchange invaluable insights, and ultimately, make significant strides towards improving outcomes for young patients battling neuroblastoma. Here’s to the power of collaboration, the spirit of discovery, and the hope for a world without neuroblastoma. Welcome back, Ghent and Berlin teams! 7 May 2024 |
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PPOL represent at the 10th CRIG OncoPoint Symposium
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CRIG hosted their yearly OncoPoint symposium together with the colleagues of Kankercentrum UZ Gent!
Different PPOL members presented their latest work via selected abstracts presentations and poster presentations. 29 April 2024 |
Annelies obtained a YIPOC grant from CRIG!
In collaboration with vzw Kinderkankerfonds, CRIG provides research grants for young (postdoctoral and/or senior doctoral) cancer researchers to initiate potentially high-risk and innovative cancer research projects. In this 15th call, our postdoc Annelies was awarded the YIPOC grant for her project ‘Spatial profiling of macrophage heterogeneity in neuroblastoma'
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) have been identified as potential contributors to the transient nature of anti-GD2 effectiveness. To gain a more in-depth understanding of TAMs in NB, the groups of Prof. De Preter and Prof. Scott have recently generated an integrated single-cell transcriptomic atlas, covering 68 NB patient samples and found considerable heterogeneity among TAMs, with the identification of different macrophage subsets. To understand the functional relevance of these different TAMs, Annelies will try to localize these TAM subsets within the tumors and/or in the TME. Moreover, by investigating their colocalization with other key actors in the TME she wants to gain additional insights into potential crosstalk between these cell populations.
29 March 2024
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) have been identified as potential contributors to the transient nature of anti-GD2 effectiveness. To gain a more in-depth understanding of TAMs in NB, the groups of Prof. De Preter and Prof. Scott have recently generated an integrated single-cell transcriptomic atlas, covering 68 NB patient samples and found considerable heterogeneity among TAMs, with the identification of different macrophage subsets. To understand the functional relevance of these different TAMs, Annelies will try to localize these TAM subsets within the tumors and/or in the TME. Moreover, by investigating their colocalization with other key actors in the TME she wants to gain additional insights into potential crosstalk between these cell populations.
29 March 2024
New funding for our AURKA-PROTACs project by Villa Joep
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In the previous project, highly selective and potent PROTACs were developed to degrade AURKA, and synergistic drug combinations were identified.
This new project, funded by Villa Joep, aims to further build on these achievements with the following objectives:
21 March 2024 |
PPOL represent at the Neuroblastoma UK meeting in Cambridge
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Noah, Lasse, Annelies & Kaat represented the PPOL team at the 6th Neuroblastoma Research Symposium organised by the Neuroblastoma UK charity.
We are proud of Lasse who won an award for "Best Poster Presentation". 21-22 March 2024 |
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Congratulations dr. Van Haver!
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Stéphane Van Haver succesfully defended his PhD in Health Sciences entitled: ‘Human pluripotent stem cell modeling, from normal development to neuroblastoma'. Congratulations Stéphane! We wish you all the best with your new research adventures in New York! Dr. Van Haver's PhD thesis can be found here. 7 March 2024 |
Our work on the chromatin reader PHF6 on BioRxiv
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! New paper alert !
PHF6 protein is a presumed chromatin reader implicated in disease through germline loss-offunction mutations causing cognitive disability syndromes and somatic mutations are predominantly observed in acute T-cell leukemia. Previous reports support a role for PHF6 in DNA damage repair, replication fork restart as well as hematopoietic precursor cell self-renewal capacity and lineage commitment. We show a canonical PHF6-RRM2 interaction enabling active transport of RRM2 to genomic sites of PHF6 mediated fork restart and PHF6 localization to H3K56ac at highly transcribed genes facilitating fork restart following replication-transcription conflicts. 2 March 2024 |
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New funding for PPOL by "Stand up against Cancer"
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Stand up against Cancer (Kom op tegen Kanker) invests in promising cancer research projects and innovative care initiatives that increase survival rates and improve the quality of life for (former) patients. Our doctoral fellow Carolien received a start up grant for her project on GJC1, while our group leader Kaat received a project grant for the CDK12 project. On January 22th, they recieved their grants during the award ceremony. 22 January 2024 |
New paper on iPSC modeling in neuroblastoma
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! New paper alert !
Our new paper, "Human iPSC modeling recapitulates in vivo sympathoadrenal development and reveals an aberrant developmental subpopulation in familial neuroblastoma" is published in iScience. Studies defining normal and disrupted human neural crest cell development have been challenging given its early timing and intricacy of development. Consequently, insight into the early disruptive events causing a neural crest related disease such as pediatric cancer neuroblastoma is limited. To overcome this problem, we developed an in vitro differentiation model to recapitulate the normal in vivo developmental process of the sympathoadrenal lineage which gives rise to neuroblastoma. 19 January 2024 |
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Our web tool HTSplotter is online!
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! New paper alert !
In biomedical research, high-throughput screening is often applied as it comes with automatization, higher-efficiency, and more and faster results. The data analysis consists of data cleaning and structuring, as well as further data processing and visualisation, which, due to the amount of data, can easily become laborious, time-consuming and error-prone. Therefore, several tools have been developed to aid researchers in this process, but these typically focus on specific experimental set-ups and are unable to process data of several time points and genetic-chemical perturbagen screens. To meet these needs, we developed HTSplotter, a web tool and Python module that performs automatic data analysis and visualization of visualization of eitherendpoint or real-time assays from different high-throughput screening experiments: drug, drug combination, genetic perturbagen and genetic-chemical perturbagen screens. 5 January 2024 |
Lisa obtained a YIPOC grant from CRIG
In collaboration with vzw Kinderkankerfonds, CRIG provides research grants for young (postdoctoral and/or senior doctoral) cancer researchers to initiate potentially high-risk and innovative cancer research projects. In this 14th call, our postdoc Lisa was awarded a YIPOC grant to boost her project on interrupting the PHF6-RRM2 interaction:
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Many cancer cells, including neuroblastomas, show an increased dependency on replicative stress response pathways to keep up with their high and error-prone proliferation activity. Recently, we have identified the interaction between RRM2 and PHF6 as important in this neuroblastoma cell replication stress resistance. Therefore, in her project, Lisa will try to identify compounds that potentially can disrupt this PHF6-RRM2 interaction, and might therefore hold therapeutic potential for the treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma patients. Watch the movie where Lisa explains her project (in Dutch) here. 15 October 2023 |
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PPOL present at the VIB 'tumor heterogeneity, plasticicty and therapy' meeting
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Annelies, Noah en Iris from our team attented and presented their posters at the meeting organised by the VIB Ghent about 'tumor heterogeneity, plasticity and therapy'.
3-4 October 2023 |
Congratulations dr. Louwagie!
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Amber Louwagie succesfully defended her PhD in Health Sciences entitled: ‘Molecular characterization of SOX11 as multifaceted epigenetic regulator in neuroblastoma”.
Congratulations Amber! We wish you all the best with your new research adventures in Canada! Dr. Louwagies PhD thesis can be found here. 9 October 2023 |
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Congratulations dr. Depestel!
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Lisa Depestel succesfully defended her PhD in Health Sciences entitled: "Exploring the PHF6-RRM2 axis as a novel entry point for targeted therapy in neuroblastoma using in vitro and in vivo modeling”.
Congratulations Lisa! We are looking forward to your new research adventures as a postdoc in our lab ! Dr. Depestel's PhD thesis can be found here. 19 September 2023 |
Welcome Annelies!
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We welcome a new post doctoral fellow in the lab! Welcome Annelies!
Annelies will be working partly in our lab, and partially in the lab of Charlotte Scott at the VIB to connect and expand our work on immunology and spatial omics. 16 August 2023 |
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Advances in Neuroblastoma Research meeting 2023 co-organised by PPOL
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Our group leader Frank Speleman co-organised the ANR2023 meeting, finally live in Amsterdam.
Group members Amber, Noah, Stéphane and Iris were selected to give an oral presentation, Lisa and Joshua were selected to pitch their research in 1min, while all other team members presented their research trough posters presentations. 15-18 May 2023 |
Lisa & Carolina won the first PVV award!
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At the end of 2022, we had to say goodbye to our collegue and group leader Prof. Pieter Van Vlierberghe, after his unfair battle against cancer. Pieter was one of the driving forces of cancer research in Ghent, made great contributions in the field of (pediatric) leukemia and lymphoma, and was an excellent leader, motivator and friend to many of us. To honor and remember him, CRIG launched the 'Pieter Van Vlierberghe Award' in 2023, a yearly award for the best paper in oncology published by young CRIG researchers. The laureates from this first award are Dr. Lisa Depestel & Dr. Carolina Nunes for their (shared) paper ‘RRM2 enhances MYCN-driven neuroblastoma formation and acts as synergistic target with CHK1 inhibition’ (published in Science Advances, 2022), opening new therapeutic opportunities for the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. The laureates were awarded during CRIG’s PrIOMiC-OncoPoint symposium in May 2023, in the presence of Prof. Van Vlierberghe’s relatives.
4 May 2023 |
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New paper on the role of SOX11 as dependency in neuroblastoma
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! New paper alert !
We identify SOX11 as a dependency transcription factor in adrenergic neuroblastoma based on recurrent chromosome 2p focal gains and amplifications, specific expression in the normal sympatho-adrenal lineage and adrenergic neuroblastoma, regulation by multiple adrenergic specific (super-)enhancers and strong dependency on high SOX11 expression in adrenergic neuroblastomas. 23 March 2023 |
Congratulations dr. Nunes!
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Carolina Nunes succesfully defended her PhD in Health Sciences entitled: "Preclinical evaluation of targeted therapeutic strategies for high-risk neuroblastoma”. Congratulations Carolina! We wish you the best of luck in all your next challenges! Dr. Nunes PhD thesis can be found here. 8 March 2023 |
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New paper on AURKA-PROTACs as new therapeutic agents for neuroblastoma
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! New paper alert !
To inhibit or to degrade? For certain cancer drug targets, like AURKA, protein degradation may be beneficial and offer a more targeted-therapeutic approach compared to the use of classical inhibitors. In our latest efforts, we joined forces with the Laboratory for Medicinal Chemistry in developing and validating small-molecule PROTACs capable of inducing rapid and sustained degradation of AURKA in neuroblastoma. This research was funded and supported by Villa Joep, Kom op tegen Kanker, Stichting tegen Kanker and Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) 16 January 2023 |
PPOL present at the EMBO workshop in Cavtat
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Affy, Elien, Sarah-Lee, Noah and Iris attended the EMBO workshop in Cavtat, Croatia about "Cancer cell signaling: Linking molecular knowledge to cancer therapy". They presented their work through poster presentations, for which Affy won a prize!
Congratulations Affy! 16-20 September 2022 |
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Zebrafish to the rescue!
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Want to learn more about how we use zebrafish in cancer research? Read the interview of kinderkankerfonds with our group leader Kaat here (in Dutch). 9 August 2022 |
New paper on RRM2 as novel druggable dependency
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! New paper alert !
We identified ribonucleotide reductase subunit M2 (RRM2) as a candidate dependency factor. Forced RRM2 induction alleviates excessive replicative stress induced by CHK1 inhibition, while high RRM2 expression in human neuroblastomas correlates with high CHK1 activity. Combinatorial RRM2-CHK1 inhibition acts synergistic in high-risk neuroblastoma cell lines and patient-derived xenograft models, illustrating the therapeutic potential. This treatment may also open doors for the treatment of other forms of childhood cancer. Through a European collaborative partnership supported by the Innovative Therapies for Children with Cancer Consortium , the new treatment strategy will be evaluated and further researched. The research was conducted in collaboration with the Dutch Prinses Máxima Centrum voor Kinderoncologie and the American Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, with special financial support from Kom op tegen Kanker, the Olivia Fund, the Children’s Cancer Fund, the Foundation Against Cancer, and the Villa Joep Fund. 23 July 2022 |
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PPOL at OncoPoint 2022
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At this 8th OncoPoint meeting, Lisa presented her RRM2 zebrafish work, while Elien, Affy and Joshua gave excellent poster presentations.
23 May 2022 |
New review about copy number variations in neuroblastoma
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! New paper alert !
Want to know more on how copy number changes shape neuroblastoma biology, check out our new review in the latest issue of Journal of Personalized Medicine: “From DNA Copy Number Gains and Tumor Dependencies to Novel Therapeutic Targets for High-Risk Neuroblastoma”. 3 December 2021 |
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Time for teambuilding!
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We enjoyed our team-building experience, allowing us to inspire creativity, foster communication, and improve problem-solving skills
through engaging activities that brings our team closer. 26 October 2021 |
Check our new paper on MEIS2 in early developement in neuroblastoma
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! New paper alert !
We performed a time-resolved analysis of the dynamic transcriptional changes of protein coding genes during murine TH-MYCN driven neuroblastoma development, focusing on timepoints representing tumor initiation and early tumor growth. We triangulated expression changes of key genes with publicly available exome-wide CRISPR-cas9 knockout analyses on a panel of human neuroblastoma cell lines and patient survival data. This unique data resource uncovered the relevance of MEIS2 as putative early cooperating initiating factor for neuroblastoma. Analysis of the genome-wide binding profile of MEIS2 in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cell lines showed a striking overlap with enhancer-driven gene expression in regions of open chromatin, providing evidence that MEIS2 is a novel member of the adrenergic neuroblastoma core-regulatory circuitry. Finally, cross-species integrative transcriptomics approach with expression data of 498 primary human neuroblastomas allowed to identify transcription factors acting as master regulators with FOXM1 as top ranked gene. 5 October 2021 |
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‘TEARDRoP’ consortium founded to help find treatments for children with cancer
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With the support of the Olivia Hendrickx Research Fund , the ‘Team EARly DRug development in Paediatric oncology (TEARDRoP)’ consortium was founded. As the name indicates, this consortium was set up to support the translation of new research findings in the field of paediatric oncology to new therapeutic options, making science find its way to children in need of new and better treatments.
Learn more about TEARDRoP here. 18 Augustus 2021 |
ANR2020 gets digital
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Due to the corona/COVID-19 virus situation we have decided to postpone the ANR2020 meeting to a later date. Meanwhile, as science is still progressing, we organized an online event to stay connected with neuroblastoma researchers all over the world.
Lisa and Bieke from our team both give online presentations about their work. Visit the congress website here. 25-27 January 2021 |
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Congratulations dr. Mus!
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Liselot Mus succesfully defended her PhD in Health Sciences entitled: "Genetic events contributing to tumour promotion and aggressiveness in high-risk neuroblastoma". Congratulations Liselot! We wish you the best of luck with your next carreer steps! Dr. Mus' PhD thesis can be found here. 17 September 2020 |
Congratulations dr. Loontiens!
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Siebe Loontiens succesfully defended her PhD in Health Sciences entitled: "Exploring the role of PHF6 in malignant and normal hematopoiesis through zebrafish modeling". Congratulations Siebe! We are very happy that you will continue your research in our lab! Dr. Loontiens' PhD thesis can be found here. 25 August 2020 |
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Bieke obtained a YIPOC grant from CRIG
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In collaboration with vzw Kinderkankerfonds, CRIG provides research grants for young (postdoctoral and/or senior doctoral) cancer researchers to initiate potentially high-risk and innovative cancer research projects. In this, 7th call our postdoc Bieke was awarded a YIPOC grant to boost her project on the long noncoding RNA SILC1.
Watch the movie where Bieke explains the project in Dutch here. 1 March 2020 |
From neuroblast to neuroblastoma
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We invited different researchers from all over Europe to talk about their neuroblastoma research in Ghent.
Take a look at the program here: 
14 June 2019 |
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Zebrafish experts in Ghent
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We invited different of our zebrafish collaborators to Ghent, to get an update on the state of the art and novel tools in zebrafish research.
1 December 2017 |