dr. Malaika Van der Linden (PhD)

The gold standard for the diagnosis of most cancers is examination of a tissue biopsy. However, some lesions are difficult to reach or biopsies may be too small for a comprehensive diagnosis. Detection of circulating tumor DNA in blood plasma forms the basis for a liquid biopsy.
Our research group is primarily interested in how liquid biopsies from lung cancer and (aggressive) lymphoma patients can be used for ‘histological’ cancer subtyping and differential diagnosis without the need of a tissue biopsy.
Our studies focus on different methods, including copy number profiling and, more recently, methylation profiling. From blood collection to bioinformatics, procedures are being optimized for the analysis of both liquid biopsies and traditional tissue biopsies.
Ongoing research projects will explore the potential of combining the (epi)genomic information to enable genome-wide tumor DNA characterization via a liquid biopsy and could lead to a practical blood test that is sensitive and specific enough to diagnose different cancer types.
 

• Lab address: Department of Pathology, PAD-building, entrance 23, Ghent University Hospital, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, 9000 Ghent, Belgium