Laura Corveleyn

CRIG member
Laura Corveleyn


Doctoral fellow (FWO) – Lab of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology (Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UGent)
Principal investigator: prof. Dieter Deforce (PhD)

 

Research focus

Personalized medicine, i.e. treatment that is tailored to the clinical characteristics of a specific patient, is hot-topic in healthcare at the moment. However, to date, research has almost exclusively relied on pharmacogenomics, i.e. analyzing the genome in order to predict drug response. Pharmaco-epigenetics is an emerging field within personalized medicine that is devoted to studying non-genetic heritable causes for variability in (epi)drug response and their underlying mechanisms. One of these epigenetic mechanisms are post-translational modifications of histones (hPTMs). hPTMs play a crucial role in regulation of gene expression and have therefore been associated to several types of cancer and other diseases.

The aim of my PhD project is to develop a mass spectrometry (MS)-based screening assay to predict epidrug sensitivity based on individual hPTM signatures. In particular, I will crystalize the data-independent acquisition (DIA) workflow which was optimized in our lab over the past years (hSWATH) and apply it for the first time to predict outcome of epidrug treatment in T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (T-ALL). In collaboration with Prof. Pieter Van Vlierberghe (Lab of Normal and Malignant Hematopoiesis, Center for Medical Genetics, UGent)), we were able to map the baseline hPTM profile of 21 T-ALL cell lines using mass spectrometry. Currently, I am treating these 21 cell lines with an epidrug library and monitoring cell viability. By matching the initial histone fingerprints of resistant versus sensitive cell lines, a predictive pattern will arise that can be used on patient samples to adjust treatment.
 

Contact & links

  • Lab address: Ottergemsesteenweg 460, B-9000 Gent
  • ProGenTomics 
  • Laura Corveleyn is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks