Overview granted CRIG 'young investigator proof-of-concept' (YIPOC) projects

Since 2017, CRIG actively supports innovative cancer research in Ghent by awarding ‘young investigator proof-of-concept’ (YIPOC) projects to postdoctoral fellows (and senior doctoral researchers since a few years). With this seed funding, the awarded young researchers are able to generate proof-of-concept results to increase the success rate of future external grant applications. Numerous completed projects from the past years have demonstrated a clear output and lever effect, including the acquisition of postdoctoral fellow mandates and research project funding, new collaborations, valorization and publications, in which data from CRIG proof-of-concept grants were included.

The funding allocated for these projects is financed by CRIG - mainly through proceeds from donations and fundraisers (read more on how to support CRIG) - and co-financed (via a strategic partnership) by vzw Kinderkankerfonds (for projects focusing on pediatric oncology) . 

Below, an overview is presented of all projects (laureates, promotors, project titles, budget) that were granted by CRIG since 2017 until present.

Projects 2025 

• Annagiada Toniolo (promotor grant: Prof. Esther Hoste & Prof. Geert van Loo) - 'Keratinocyte death as a driver of squamous carcinogenesis' (20 000 EUR)

• Dr. Annelien Morlion (promotor grant: Prof. Jo Vandesompele & Prof. Pieter Mestdagh) - 'Enriching cancer signals in blood plasma cell-free RNA through custom mRNA capture sequencing' (14 500 EUR)

• Dr. Deyna Keppens (promotor grant: Prof. Kaat Durinck & Prof. Bram De Wilde) - 'Expanding the therapeutic scope of menin inhibitors: preclinical evaluation of KMT2A and NPM1 fusions as candidate therapy response biomarkers in Ewing sarcoma' (20 000 EUR)

• Eleni Staessens (promotor grant: Prof. Karolien De Bosscher & Dr. Dorien Clarisse) - 'Interactome studies to better understand nuclear receptor crosstalk in multiple myeloma' (19 450 EUR)

• Jef Haerinck (promotor grant: Prof. Geert Berx) - 'Transcriptomic and Spatial Characterization of Dormant Micrometastases Driving Late Breast Cancer Relapse' (19 185 EUR)

• Dr. Jeffrey Aalders (promotor grant: Prof. Tom Taghon) - 'Optimizing CAR-T cell development by navigating human pluripotent stem cells in a cell-cycle specific roadmap' (15 000 EUR)

• Dr. Jonas Steenbrugge (promotor grant: Prof. Evelyne Meyer) - 'Combining JAK inhibition and immune checkpoint blockade in triple-negative breast cancer' (20 000 EUR)

• Dr. Mamadou Amadou Diallo (promotor grant: Prof. Peter Vandenabeele & Prof. Jonathan Maelfait) - 'Targeted activation of ZBP1 for cancer therapy using a nucleotide-based approach' (11 409,35 EUR)

• Marthe Boelens (promotor grant: Prof. Kris Vleminckx) - 'A Xenopus-Based Platform for Functional and Spatial Modeling of Ewing Sarcoma' (20 000 EUR)

• Dr. Nele Loret (promotor grant: Prof. Steven Goossens & Prof. Koen van de Vijver) - 'Assessing the anti-metastatic effect of L-asparaginase in PDX models of triple-negative breast cancer' (15 000 EUR)

• Dr. Paul Collins (promotor grant: Prof. Charlotte Scott) - 'KC-ID: KC or not KC, understanding macrophage heterogeneity and changes in the cellular microenvironment in MASLD-HCC' (20 000 EUR)

• Dr. Robin Demuynck (promotor grant: Prof. Dmitri Krysko) - 'Investigating the mechanism of sensing and cytotoxic responses by endothelial cells during ICD based therapies' (15 000 EUR)

• Dr. Stefanie Gijsels (promotor grant: Prof. Olivier De Wever & Prof. Gwen Sys) - 'Improved outcome by combined MEK and BET inhibitors in preclinical models of PRC2/NF1 deficient malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumours' (20 000 EUR)

• Thibault Lootens (promotor grant: Prof. Robrecht Raedt & Prof. Olivier De Wever) - 'Patient-derived glioblastoma fragments as an ex vivo screening platform for personalized drug testing' (19 883 EUR)

• Dr. Tijl Vermassen (promotor grant: Prof. Sylvie Rottey) - 'Decoding the N-glycome of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in expressed prostatic secretion (EPS)-urine' (14 984,40 EUR)

• Dr. Zahra Kayani (promotor grant: Prof. Roosmarijn Vandenbroucke) - 'Targeted delivery of doxorubicin to breast cancer brain metastases via the blood–cerebrospinal fluid barrier using anti-FOLR1 VHH-conjugated gold nanoparticles' (15 000 EUR) 

Projects 2024

• Dr. Alexandra Thiran (promotor grant: Prof. Lars Vereecke) - 'Study of the CRC-promoting function of Candida albicans in early and advanced mouse models of CRC' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Annelies Van Hemelryk (promotor grant: Prof. David Creytens & Prof. Charlotte Scott) - 'Spatial profiling of macrophage heterogeneity in neuroblastoma' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Dorien Clarisse (promotor grant: Prof. Karolien De Bosscher & Prof. Fritz Offner) - 'Why and how do nuclear receptors (cross)talk in multiple myeloma cells?' (14 900 EUR)
• Dr. Jelle Vandersteene (promotor grant: Prof. Robrecht Raedt) - 'Attract to kill: Motility trapping as a novel therapeutic strategy for high grade glioma' (14 500 EUR)
• Dr. Jesse Demuytere (promotor grant: Prof. Wim Ceelen & Prof. Geert Berx) - 'Mapping the microenvironment of colorectal peritoneal metastases using spatial transcriptomics' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Kathleen Schoofs (promotor grant: Prof. Katleen De Preter) - 'Uncovering the origin of tumoral nucleic acids in blood using molecularly barcoded mouse models' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Laura Guerrero (promotor grant: Prof. Panagiotis Ntziachristos) - 'The impact of disrupted one-carbon metabolism on RNA homeostasis in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Lisa Demoen (promotor grant: dr. Tim Pieters) - 'In vivo CRISPR-Cas9 mediated KO of dependency factors in patient derived xenograft (PDX) models of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL)' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Lisa Depestel (promotor grant: Prof. Nadine Van Roy) - 'Synergistic drug interactions with CPSF3 controlled DNA damage response signaling as potential therapy for high-risk neuroblastoma' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Loren Deblock (promotor grant: Prof. Wim Ceelen & Prof. Christian Vanhove) - 'Dual-modality nanocrystals for the detection of sentinel lymph nodes: a new pre-and intraoperative workflow' (14 840 EUR)
• Dr. Maude Jans (promotor grant: Prof. Geert van Loo & Prof. Lars Vereecke) - 'Targeting genotoxic pks+ E.coli to prevent colorectal cancer development using an innovative translational technology' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Sam Kint (promotor grant: Prof. Jo Vandesompele & Prof. Katleen de Preter) - 'Dissecting epigenetic plasticity at spatial resolution in breast tumors by measuring DNA methylation' (14 840 EUR)
• Dr. Stijn De Munter (promotor grant: Prof. Bart Vandekerckhove) - 'Generation of a non-viral CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene transfer method' (11 350 EUR)
• Dr. Thomas Naert (promotor grant: Prof. Kris Vleminckx) - 'Investigating the Impact of EZH2 Inhibition on the Desmoid Tumor Microenvironment' (15 000 EUR)

Projects 2023

• Dr. Cláudio Pinheiro (promotor grant: Prof. An Hendrix) - 'A fine-grained view on the biomolecular corona of extracellular vesicles to steer therapeutic applications' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Jill Deleu (promotor grant: Prof. Jo Vandesompele & Prof. Bram De Wilde & Prof. Tom Van Maerken) - 'The exploration of cell-free mRNA to monitor therapy response in a neuroblastoma xenograft model' (14 992,85 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Joachim Siaw (promotor grant: Prof. Jimmy Van den Eynden & Prof. Kaat Durinck) - 'A spatial transcriptomic approach to determine the tumour micro-environment response to pharmacological inhibition of RUVBL1/2 as promising novel therapeutic targets for high-risk neuroblastoma' (14 858 EUR)
• Dr. Jonas Steenbrugge (promotor grant: Prof. Evelyne Meyer & Prof. Niek Sanders) - 'Proof-of-concept on lipocalin 2 as novel immunotherapeutic and lymphangiogenic target in triple negative breast cancer' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Lisa Depestel  (promotor grant: Prof. Frank Speleman & Prof. Kaat Durinck) - 'Disrupting RRM2-PHF6 interaction to target replication stress resistance in neuroblastoma' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Martijn Schuijs (promotor grant: Prof. Geert Berx) - 'Defining novel alveolar macrophage gene-targets to prevent pulmonary metastasis' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Mohammad Rahimi Gorji (promotor grant: Prof. Wim Ceelen & Prof. Charlotte Debbaut) - 'Developing a coupled in silico-experimental approach to optimize intraperitoneal aerosolized drug delivery using a realistic patient-specific abdominal model' (13 970 EUR)
• Dr. Nikdokht Rashidian (promotor grant: Prof. Frederik Berrevoet) - 'Towards Dynamic Image-Guided Hepatectomy using Computer Vision for 3-D Scene Rendering' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Sandra Van Lint (promotor grant: Prof. Karim Vermaelen) - 'Reprogramming monocyte transcriptional circuits for fast and autonomous generation of dendritic cells for cancer immunotherapy' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Sarah Bonte (promotor grant: Prof. Yvan Saeys & Prof. Tessa Kerre) - 'Towards an automated detection tool for measurable residual disease in acute myeloid leukemia' (10 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
  
   

Projects 2022

• Dr. Benoit Louage (promotor grant: Prof. Bruno De Geest) - 'A novel immunotherapeutic strategy for selective lysosomal degradation of immune-suppressive cell surface proteins in the tumor microenvironment' (14 500 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Elien De Bousser (promotor grant: Prof. Nico Callewaert) - 'Study of the impact of DMSO on the anti-tumor potency of glyco-engineered CAR T cells' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Kai Ling Liang (promotor grant: Prof. Tom Taghon) - 'A method to direct differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells into hematopoietic stem cells for autologous stem cell transplantation' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Lien Lippens (promotor grant: Prof. An Hendrix) - 'Optimizing a one-step workflow for sensitive and fast analysis of circulating bacterial extracellular vesicles' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Lien Van Hoecke (promotor grant: Prof. Roosmarijn Vandenbroucke & Prof. Pieter Van Vlierberghe) - 'Anti-FOLR1 VHHs as tool for brain tumor imaging and targeting of therapeutics' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Louis Delhaye (promotor grant: Prof. Pieter Mestdagh & Prof. Sven Eyckerman) - 'Mapping and disrupting RNA-protein interactions for the neuroblastoma-specific lncRNA NESPR' (14 996 EUR)
• Dr. Maaike Van Trimpont (promotor grant: Prof. Steven Goossens) - 'Evaluating the use of peptide-based hydrogels for the stabilization and slow release of the anti leukemic enzyme L-asparaginase (L-ASNase)' (14 000 EUR)
• Dr. Renée Bultijnck (promotor grant: Prof. Piet Ost) - 'A patient-reported outcome eHealth system in men with metastatic prostate cancer: A qualitative pilot study' (11 045 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Sander Lefere (promotor grant: Prof. Lindsey Devisscher & Prof. Hans Van Vlierberghe) - 'Maternal obesity and offspring fatty liver disease: fuel for liver cancer?' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Sandra Van Lint (promotor grant: Prof. Karim Vermaelen) - 'Targeted mRNA re-engineering enabling engagement of robust antitumoral T-helper immune responses' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Valerie De Meulenaere (promotor grant: Prof. Ingeborg Goethals & Prof. Karel Deblaere & Prof. Christian Vanhove) - 'Theranostics in neuro-oncology: [68Ga/177Lu]PSMA in a rat model of glioblastoma' (15 000 Eur) 
  
   

Projects 2021

• Dr. Celine Everaert (promotor grant: Prof. Katleen De Preter) - 'Changes in chromatin states of the systemic immune cell populations in ICI treated lung cancer patients' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Charlotte Verroken (promotor grant: Prof. David Creytens) - 'Use of 18F-PSMA PET for detection of iodine refractory thyroid carcinomas' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Christopher Anderson (promotor grant: Prof. Kodi Ravichandran) - 'Identification of death-dependent secreted metabolites from tumor and healthy epithelial cells' (9 408 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Francisco Avila Cobos (promotor grant: Prof. Pieter Mestdagh) - 'Development and validation of a computational deconvolution workflow for characterization of the immune cell repertoire from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of cancer patients treated with immunotherapy' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Gaëlle Vanbutsele (promotor grant: Prof. Tessa Kerre) - 'Development of a holistic and integrated evidenced-based psychosocial care program for related stem cell donation' (5 440 EUR)
• Dr. Jonathan Maelfait (promotor grant: Prof. Peter Vandenabeele) - 'Does ADAR1 inhibition trigger ZBP1-mediated cancer cell death?' (10 841 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Renate De Smedt & team (promotor grant: Prof. Pieter Van Vlierberghe) - 'Targeting IL4 signaling as a novel therapeutic strategy in the treatment of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Sophie Van Welden (promotor grant: Prof. Lindsey Devisscher) - 'Prolyl hydroxylase 1, the missing target enabling immunotherapy in microsatellite stable colorectal cancer?' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Srinath Govindarajan (promotor grant: Prof. Dirk Elewaut) - 'Identification and characterization of endogenous NKT ligands induced by endoplasmic reticulum stress in cancer immunotherapy' (15 000 EUR)
  
   

Projects 2020

• Dr. Bieke Decaesteker (promotor grant: Prof. Frank Speleman) - 'The functional role of the highly conserved long noncoding RNA SILC1 in neuroblastoma development' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Bram De Laere (promotor grant: Prof. Piet Ost & Prof. Jo Vandesompele) - 'Quantitative analysis of androgen receptor perturbations using a blood-based liquid biopsy as a treatment-predictive biomarker for men with metastatic castrationresistant prostate cancer' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Eric de Bony de Lavergne (promotor grant: Prof. Pieter Mestdagh) - 'A high-throughput CRISPR interference platform for the systematic identification of checkpoint inhibition response modulating long non-coding RNAs' (14 210 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Francis Combes (promotor grant: Prof. Niek Sanders) - 'Transcriptional targeting of hepatocellular carcinoma for cancer cell-specific delivery of therapeutic genes' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Ioanna Petta (promotor grant: Prof. Lars Vereecke) - 'Study of  the role of intestinal goblet cells and the mucus barrier during the development of colorectal cancer' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Martijn Risseeuw (promotor grant: Prof. Pieter Van Vlierberghe) - 'CBFβ depletion using a proteolysis targeting chimaera strategy, an alternative strategy against RUNX/CBFβ driven leukemia'  (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Nora Sundahl (promotor grant: Prof. Piet Ost) - 'Intestinal Microbiota in Prostate Cancer patients as a Biomarker for Radiation-INduced Toxicity (IMPRINT): a Prospective Biomarker Study' (14 821 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Rein Verbeke (promotor grant: Prof. Stefaan De Smedt) - 'Exploring the mucosal delivery route for lipid nanoparticles co-loaded with mRNA and α-GalCer to induce lung-resident memory T cells' (14 670 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
• Dr. Sarah Deville (promotor grant: Prof. An Hendrix) - 'Direct phenotyping of extracellular vesicle subpopulations in blood plasma of breast cancer patients using asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation' (15 000 EUR) - link to the CRIG educational movie of the project
  
   

Projects 2019

• Dr. Anna Kuchmiy (promotor grant: Prof. Tom Taghon & Prof. Pieter Van Vlierberghe) - 'Genome-wide histone modifications profiling for the studies of T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia pathogenesis' (14 948 EUR)
• Dr. Bart Roman (promotor grant: Prof. Olivier De Wever & Prof. Chris Stevens) - 'Characterization and testing of a spheroid confrontation model with fundamental and translational application potential' (14 690 EUR)
• Dr. Elly De Vlieghere (promotor grant: Prof. Olivier De Wever) - 'Tumor engineered model for low-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (LGSOC)' (14 977 EUR)
• Dr. Eric de Bony de Lavergne (promotor grant: Prof. Pieter Mestdagh) - 'Implementation of a high-throughput CRISPR-interference screening platform for the identification of therapeutic lncNRAs in neuroblastoma' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Evelien Wynendaele (promotor grant: Prof. Bart De Spiegeleer) - 'The in vivo role of quorum sensing peptides in metastatic breast cancer' (14 565 EUR)
• Dr. Fabian Hulpia (promotor grant: Prof. Geert Berx) - 'Enabling AXL kinase degradation by PROTACs as a new pharmacological tool to investigate EMT and reverse tumour resistance to existing kinase-inhibitor treatment' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Filip Matthijssens (promotor grant: Prof. Steven Goossens) - 'Validation of an AlphaScreen platform to identify novel compounds targeting dependency factors in acute leukemia' (14 868 EUR)
• Dr. Inna Afonina (promotor grant: Prof. Rudi Beyaert) - 'Functional characterization of CARD14 and its regulation by PLK1 in the context of carcinoma' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Lieselot Hemeryck (promotor grant: Prof. Lynn Vanhaecke) - 'Screening of colorectal cancer by means of Fecal Rapid Evaporative Ionization Mass Spectrometry (CRC-FREIMS)' (10 097 EUR)
• Dr. Marthe De Boevre (promotor grant: Prof. Sarah De Saeger) - 'Chronic multi-mycotoxin exposure & human colorectal cancer risk: verification of genome-wide mutational signatures using next-generation sequencing' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Suzanne Vanhauwaert (promotor grant: Prof. Frank Speleman) - 'A new model for the study of MYCN induced senescence: a pilot single cell transcriptome analysis' (15 000 EUR)
  
   

Projects 2018

• Dr. Bram De Wilde (promotor grant: Prof. Katleen De Preter) - 'Non-invasive tissue of origin prediction for paediatric solid tumours using methylation profiling of circulating cell-free DNA' (10 000 EUR)
• Dr. Esther Hoste (promotor grant: Prof. Geert van Loo) - 'Investigating severe inflammation and aberrant stem cell proliferation in Otulin‐deficient mouse epidermis through single‐cell RNA‐sequencing' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Franca Brazao Tiago (promotor grant: Prof. Pieter Mestdagh & Prof. Jo Vandesompele) - 'Implementation of a massively-parallel CRISPR-interference screening platform for the identification of therapeutic lncRNAs in neuroblastoma' (10 000 EUR) - remark: project was discontinued before the start and budget was returned to CRIG
• Dr. Hetty Helsmoortel (promotor grant: Prof. Nicolaas Lumen) - 'Extracellular RNA detection in liquid biopsies: towards a better diagnosis of prostate cancer patients' (13 673 EUR)
• Dr. Ioanna Petta (promotor grant: Prof. Geert Berx & Prof. Lars Vereecke) - 'Study of microbiota-host interactions during colorectal cancer development using germfree and gnotobiotic mouse technology' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Joao Portela Catani (promotor grant: Prof. Niek Sanders) - 'Self-amplifying mRNA with gene silencing capacity as an innovative all-in-one device that simultaneously combines inhibition of immunosuppressive pathways with cancer vaccination' (14 900 EUR)
• Dr. Pieter-Jan Volders (promotor grant: Prof. Jo Vandesompele) - 'Design of selected reaction monitoring (SRM) assays to detect novel micropeptides in cancer' (8 591 EUR) - remark: project was discontinued and the budget was returned to CRIG
• Dr. Sofie Peirs (promotor grant: Prof. Pieter Van Vlierberghe) - 'In vivo evaluation of a novel chalcone compound for the treatment of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia' (11 250 EUR)
• Dr. Sofie Van Gassen (promotor grant: Prof. Yvan Saeys & Prof. Tessa Kerre & Prof. Jan Philippé) - 'Development of a 28-color flow cytometry panel for immunophenotyping AML samples' (15 000 EUR) - Remark: external budget was found for this project, and the YIPOC budget was returned to CRIG
  
   

Projects 2017

• Dr. An Hendrix (promotor grant: Prof. Sven Eyckerman & Prof. Olivier De Wever) - 'Do cancer cells fire ARMMs to foster invasion and metastasis?' (12 500 EUR)
• Dr. Elly Devlieghere (promotor grant: Prof. Olivier De Wever & Prof. Wim Ceelen) - 'In vivo drug penetration evaluation of an heterocellular 3D Scaffolds as biomimetic of peritoneal metastasis model' (11 700 EUR)
• Dr. Heleen Dewitte (promotor grant: Prof. Stefaan De Smedt) - 'Exploring immune activation by high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU): is there a link with immunogenic cell death?' (14 100 EUR)
• Dr. Joni Van der Meulen (promotor grant: Prof. Nadine Van Roy & Prof. Lieve Brochez) - 'Targeted sequencing of circulating tumor DNA for therapy monitoring in metastatic melanoma' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Kaat Durinck (promotor grant: Prof. Frank Speleman) - 'BEZ-235/panobinostat induced synergistic targeting of a FOXM1 driven DNA damage response in neuroblastoma' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Katrien Vandecasteele (promotor grant: Prof. Peter Vandenabeele & Prof. Wilfried De Neve) - 'Evaluation of radiation induced cell death modalities after chemoradiation for locally advanced cervical cancer and correlation with tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and outcome' (7 000 EUR)
• Dr. Lutz Nuhn (promotor grant: Prof. Bruno De Geest) - 'Engineering the tumor draining lymph nodes with immune-modulating nanoparticles' (7 500 EUR)
• Dr. Niels Vandamme (promotor grant: Prof. Geert Berx) - 'Shaping heterogeneity of melanocytes and melanomas using single cell RNA sequencing' (15 000 EUR)
• Dr. Sandy Adjemian Catani (promotor grant: Prof. Peter Vandenabeele) - 'Identification of tumor-specific markers and infiltrating immune cells during cancer cell death' (12 300 EUR)