Lotte Ulrix
Doctoral fellow – Lab for Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation (UGent, UZGent)
Doctoral fellow – Department of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics (UGent)
Principal investigators: prof. Tim Lammens (PhD), prof. Barbara De Moerloose (MD, PhD) and dr. Mattias Hofmans (MD, PhD)
Research focus
Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) is a rare myelodysplastic and myeloproliferative disorder that occurs in early childhood. JMML treatment primarily relies on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). However, disease relapse is frequent and long-term survival is only 50-60%. JMML patients typically exhibit RAS pathway hyperactivation and can be classified into genetic subgroups based on canonical driver mutations. Nevertheless, substantial clinical and biological heterogeneity is observed within these subgroups. Some patients experience spontaneous remission, whereas others show rapid disease progression. Studies have revealed that additional genetic and epigenetic alterations - including secondary mutations, aberrant DNA methylation, and dysregulation of the non-coding transcriptome - contribute to JMML pathogenesis. Our research group has focused on characterizing the non-coding transcriptome in JMML and has reported dysregulation of circular RNAs (circRNAs). CircRNAs are generated through back-splicing of pre-mRNA and can interact with diverse biomolecules, thereby modulating key cellular signaling pathways.
My PhD project aims to investigate the circRNA landscape in JMML through functional characterization of circRNAs. I aim to identify disease biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets. Furthermore, circRNA research faces several methodological challenges, including the lack of suitable reference molecules for expression normalization in quantitative assays. Therefore, an additional goal of my project is to identify stable circRNA reference genes to improve the accuracy and reproducibility of circRNA quantification.
Biography
- 2025-Present: PhD candidate in Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University
- 2023-2025: Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences, Ghent University
- 2020-2023: Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences, Ghent University
- 2014-2020: Science-Mathematics, Sint-Andreaslyceum Sint-Kruis
Contact & links
- Lab Address: Laboratory for Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, entrance 10 (route 1034), Ghent University Hospital, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, 9000 Ghent
- Lab for pediatric Hematology-Oncology
- ORCID
- Lotte Ulrix is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks