dr. Joachim T. Siaw (PhD)

CRIG member
Joachim Siaw


Post-doctoral researcher - Lab of computational cancer genomics and tumour evolution (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, UGent)
Principal investigator: prof. Jimmy Van den Eynden (MD, PhD)

 

Research focus

My research focus is on understanding the spatial dynamics of the different cell types in a neuroblastoma (NB) tumor. NB consists of two interconvertible cancer cell subtypes called adrenergic and mesenchymal cells. Despite the clinical relevance of these cell types, the mechanisms behind their plasticity and the specific interaction between these different cancer cell types and their tumor microenvironment, as well as the spatial dynamics of the different cells within a tumor are not known. My goal is to gain insight into the spatial dynamics between NB cancer cell types and their microenvironment.
 

Biography

  • Postdoctoral Researcher: Ghent University, Ghent Belgium (2021-date)
  • Barncancer postdoctoral fellowship (2021-2025)
  • PhD Fellow: University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden (2016-2020).
  • Research Assistant: University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden (2015-2016)
  • Master of Science: Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden ( 2013-2015)
  • BSc Biochemistry: University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana (2008-2012)
     

Key publications

  • 11q Deletion or ALK Activity Curbs DLG2 Expression to Maintain an Undifferentiated State in Neuroblastoma. Cell Reports, 2020. (PMID: 32966799) 
    A clinically annotated post-mortem approach to study multi-organ somatic mutational clonality in normal tissues. Scientific Reports, 2022. (PMID 35725896) 
  • ATR inhibition enables complete tumour regression in ALK-driven NB mouse models. Nature Communications, 2021. (PMID: 34819497)
  • BioID-Screening Identifies PEAK1 and SHP2 as Components of the ALK Proximitome in Neuroblastoma Cells. JMB, 2021. (PMID: 34273398)
  • Loss of RET Promotes Mesenchymal Identity in Neuroblastoma Cells’. Cancers, 2021. (PMID: 33921066)
  • Clinical response of the novel activating ALK-I1171T mutation in neuroblastoma to the ALK inhibitor ceritinib. Cold Spring Harb Mol Case Stud, 2018. (PMID: 29907598)
  • Brigatinib, an anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitor, abrogates activity and growth in ALK-positive neuroblastoma cells, Drosophila and mice’. Oncotarget, 2016. (PMID: 27049722)
     

Contact & links