Tibo Coulier

My PhD project focuses on improving precision medicine for pediatric cancers, where treatment advances have increased survival but still come with significant toxicity, long-term side effects, and poor outcomes for patients who relapse. Because childhood tumors typically carry very few genetic mutations, developing effective targeted therapies remains challenging. To address this, the project will establish an integrated multi-omics platform using comprehensive long-read sequencing. By applying Oxford Nanopore technologies to analyze each patient’s genome and (epi)transcriptome, the project aims to uncover complex structural variants, copy-number changes, and epigenetic alterations that are often missed by standard short-read sequencing. The resulting in-depth molecular profiles are expected to broaden the range of actionable targets and support more precise selection of therapies tailored to each patient. In addition, these detailed molecular profiles will be used to investigate the functional impact of identified alterations and to assess their potential as entry points for novel therapeutic approaches. This will be achieved using complementary in vitro and in vivo model systems, providing a foundation for future translational strategies.
 

• In 2025, I obtained a Masters degree in Biomedical Sciences (major cancer)
   

• Lab address: Center for Medical Genetics Ghent (CMGG), Medical Research Building 1 (MRB1), 2nd floor, office: 120.055, entrance 34, campus UZ Gent, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
• PPOL
• Lab for Genome Research
• LinkedIn
• Tibo Coulier is involved in Consortium for Sarcoma Research Ghent (ConSarGhent)
• Tibo Coulier is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks