prof. Barbara De Moerloose (MD, PhD)

The main expertise of our group is focused on clinical studies in the field of pediatric oncology: mostly academic, non-sponsored studies but also early phase clinical trials usually sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, including the innovative CAR-T treatment for childhood ALL . Most of these clinical studies are coordinated by international cooperative groups and/or by the 'Innovative Therapies for Children with Cancer’ (ITCC) consortium of which the department of pediatric hematology-oncology and stem cell transplantation at the Ghent University Hospital is a recognized participating site.  The group is Good Clinical Practice (ICH-GCP) certified and the department is JACIE accredited.

The translational research of the group refers to childhood leukemia (acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)) and myelodysplasia with the following topics:

• Real-time monitoring of asparaginase treatment in childhood ALL.
• Improving risk-assessment in childhood ALL by identification of a blood/bone marrow miRNA and lnc-RNA signature with prognostic value.
• The role of non-coding RNA in JMML.
• Evaluation of long non-coding RNAs as novel therapeutic targets in JMML
• Evaluation of the prognostic value of the leukemic stem cell (LSC) and pre-leukemic hematopoietic stem cell (pre-L HSC) for minimal residual disease monitoring and clinical management of pediatric AML patients
• Minimal residual disease detection in ALL by a next generation sequencing approach
   

Education-positions-honors:

• Ghent University, Medical Doctor (MD),  TGD (DGO), 1994
• Ghent University, Doctor in Medical Sciences (PhD), 2002
• European School of Oncology, Training Course Pediatric Oncology, 2000
• Research assistant of the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen) with a project entitled: “Immuuncytochemische en flowcytometrische analyse van P-glycoproteïne en functioneel onderzoek ter detectie van chemotherapieresistentie bij kinderen met acute leukemie”, 1994-2000
• Pediatric residency training at the Ghent University Hospital, 1994-2002
• Staff member of the dept of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation since 2003.
• Current appointment: Head of Clinic
• Associate professor (Hoofddocent, 5%) - Ghent University (since 01/10/2007)
• Speciaprijs, Rhône-Poulenc Rorer,  04/07/1994
• Nestlé-prijs, 26ste Jaarvergadering van de BVK, 20/03/1998.
• Prijs van het Fonds Prof. Dr. C. Hooft, periode 2000-2003.
• Laureaat Crawhez Leukaemia Fund – Koning Boudewijn Stichting, 2012 (J1810870-100692)

Professional memberships

• Member of BSPHO, SIOP, BHS, EWOG-MDS, EWOG-SAA, EORTC-CLG , EHA, I-BFM AML and ECT (early clinical trials) working groups
• SIOP Scientific Programme Advisory Committee (SPAC): 2012-2015 Belgian Journal of Hematology, editorial board
   

• prof. Barbara De Moerloose - associate professor
• prof. Tim Lammens - associate professor
• dr. Delfien Bogaert (MD, PhD) - post-doctoral fellow
• dr. Mattias Hofmans (MD, PhD) - post-doctoral fellow
• dr. Veerle Mondelaers (MD) - doctoral fellow
• dr. Charlotte Derpoorter (PhD) - post-doctoral fellow
• dr. Laurens Van Camp (MD) - doctoral fellow
• dr. Alexandra Reekmans (MD) - doctoral fellow
• Jolien De Waele - doctoral fellow
• Annelore Dehoorne - clinical research coordinator
• Rein Demuynck - clinical research coordinator
• Maaike Van Hoecke - clinical research coordinator
• Inge D'hont - technician
• Eva Terras - technician
• Katrien Vandemeulebroecke - technician
   

• Improved outcome with pulses of vincristine and corticosteroids in continuation therapy of children with average risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and lymphoblastic non-Hodgkin lymphoma: report of the EORTC randomized phase 3 trial 58951. Blood, 2010. (PMID 20407035)
• PHF6 mutations in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Nature Genetics, 2010. (PMID 20228800)
• Gene expression-based classification as an independent predictor of clinical outcome in juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2010. (PMID 20231685)
• Pediatric acute myeloid leukemia with t(8;16)(p11;p13): a distinct clinical and biological entity: a collaborative study by the International-Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster AML-study group. Blood, 2013. (PMID 23974201)
• Clinical impact of additional cytogenetic aberrations, cKIT- and RAS mutations and )treatment elements in pediatric t(8;21)-AML: Results from an international retrospective study by the International Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster Study Group. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2015. (PMID 26573082)
• Collaborative efforts driving progress in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2015. (PMID26304895)  
• Heterogeneous Cytogenetic Subgroups and Outcomes in Childhood Acute Megakaryoblastic Leukemia: A Retrospective International Study. Blood, 2015. (PMID 26215111)
• Prognostic relevance of CD200/BTLA deletions in pediatric precursor-B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia treated according to the EORTC-CLG 58951 protocol. Haematologica, 2015. (PMID 26137961)
• Prevalence, clinical characteristics and prognosis of GATA2-related myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) in children and adolescents. Blood, 2016. (PMID 26702063)
• LIN28B overexpression defines a novel fetal-like subgroup of  juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia. Blood, 2016. (PMID 26712910)
   

• Ghent University Hospital, Department of Pediatric Hemato-oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, 5K12D, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, B-9000 Gent
• Hemato-oncology
• Innovative Therapies for Children with Cancer 
• Belgian Society of Paediatric Haematology Oncology