Soetkin Leys

Neuroblastoma (NB) is a pediatric cancer that originates in the precursor cells of the sympathetic nervous system. Especially patients with high-risk NB have a poor prognosis as more than half of them succumb to their disease within five years. Hence, more effective and less toxic treatments are highly required. 
My PhD focusses on novel drugging approaches for NB. To this end, I generate zebrafish xenograft models by injecting neuroblastoma cells into 2-days-old zebrafish, where they form small tumors. The fish are subsequently treated with novel (combination) therapies for three days. In this way, the zebrafish xenograft model offers a rapid platform to study both therapy  toxicity and the effect of the therapy on human cancer cells in an in vivo setting. The approach enables prioritization of effective and tolerable treatment strategies before validation in more expensive murine models. 
 

I obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Pharmaceutical and Biological Laboratory Technology (Odisee, 2018), during which I went on Erasmus to the University of Girona. Afterwards, I obtained a Master’s Degree in the Biochemistry and Biotechnology with a major in biomedical biotechnology (UGent, 2022). 
I am doing a PhD at the Pediatric Precision Oncology Lab from October 2022 onwards, where I use zebrafish models and xenografts to investigate RRM2-targeting drugs and combination therapies.
 

• Lab address: Center for Medical Genetics Ghent (CMGG), Medical Research Building 1 (MRB1), 2nd floor, campus UZ Gent, Corneel Heymanslaan 10,  entrance 34, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
• Pediatric Precision Oncology Lab 
• Center for Medical Genetics Ghent 
• LinkedIn 
• Soetkin Leys is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks