Marthe Calloens

Peripheral neurotoxicity is a major dose-limiting side effect of several widely used chemotherapeutic agents, such as taxanes. This significantly reduces patients’ quality of life and often restricts treatment options. Taxanes exert their anticancer effects by stabilizing microtubules and disrupting their dynamic behavior, which is essential for maintaining axonal transport and normal neuronal function. In addition to causing peripheral neuropathy, taxane therapy is frequently associated with the development of drug resistance. Together, these limitations have driven efforts to identify new and effective microtubule-stabilizing agents that retain antitumor activity while causing less neurotoxic adverse effects and showing lower susceptibility to resistance.

My research project aims to address this challenge by investigating a novel microtubule-stabilizing agent with distinct tubulin-binding characteristics compared to taxanes. Preliminary data from cancer cell lines and ex vivo patient-derived tumor fragments have demonstrated promising anticancer activity. During my PhD, I will further evaluate the safety and efficacy of this compound, with a particular focus on its impact on peripheral neurotoxicity, using both ex vivo neuronal cultures and in vivo mouse models.
 

In 2025, I obtained a Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences (magna cum laude). After graduating, I continued my academic career as a PhD student at the Laboratory of Experimental Cancer Research (LECR).
 

• Lab address: 
  Laboratory of Experimental Cancer Research, 
  Department of Human Structure and Repair, 
  Campus UZ Gent, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, The Core, entrance 37, 9000 Gent, Belgium
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• Marthe Calloens is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks