Hanne Van Droogenbroeck

CRIG member


Doctoral fellow – OncoRNALab, Department of biomolecular medicine, center for medical genetics Ghent (CMGG), UGentPrincipal investigators: prof. Jo Vandesompele (PhD) & prof. Bram De Wilde (MD, PhD) & prof. Tom Van Maerken (MD, PhD)
 

Research focus

Currently, tissue biopsies are the golden standard to diagnose cancer. However this method is invasive and harmful for patients and is often not representative for the entire (sometimes metastatic) tumor, creating a sampling bias. Furthermore, tissue biopsies require a detectable and accessible tumor, which is not always present. Liquid biopsies is a technique which holds promise to overcome many of these issue. With a liquid biopsy, biofluids like plasma are screened for biomarkers such as RNA, DNA and proteins. Currently, there is an increased interest in the use of liquid biopsies since this method is minimally invasive, less expensive compared to tissue biopsies and it provides information about spatial and/or subclonal tumor heterogeneity. Furthermore, liquid biopsies enable repeated sampling, allowing follow-up of the patient in real-time during and after treatment. My project is focused on developing and applying liquid biopsies technology for deep profiling of tumor and micro-environment derived nucleic acids to allow non-invasive monitoring of tumor growth.

My research also focuses on the development of a novel spatial transcriptomics technology to allow monitoring of the immune response during therapy, to follow-up tumor heterogeneity and to deconvolute the different cell types present in a tumor. 
 

Biography

  • Master in Biomedical Sciences major oncology (obtained in 2022)
     

Contact and links

  • Lab address: Campus UZ Gent, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
    - Postal and laboratory address: Medical Research Building 1 (MRB1, entrance 34)
    - Office address: Blok B, ground floor, room 100.002 (entrance 36)
  • OncoRNALab 
  • Center for Medical Genetics 
  • Hanne Van Droogenbroeck is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks