LPCM @ Dag van de Wetenschap 2018

(English below)

We staan er niet altijd bij stil, maar wetenschap en techniek bepalen ons dagelijks leven. Zelfs iets simpels als een warme douche of kopje koffie zijn mogelijk dankzij het werk van wetenschappers.

Om een idee te geven van hoe wij ons steentje bijdragen, organiseerden we voor de Dag van de Wetenschap een introductie met interactie rondleiding door het labo. Je kan in het echt als een patholoog een diagnose stellen, ontdekken hoe cellijnen - maakt van hersentumoren - eruit zien en hoe ze zich gedragen wanneer ze blootgesteld worden aan therapie.

Na deze eerste editie, willen we iedereen die langs gekomen is ten harte bedanken! Samen hebben we de eerste stappen gezet binnen de boeiende wereld van het (hersenkanker-) onderzoek.

In onze fotogalerij kan je enkele sfeerfoto’s terugvinden.

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We do not always think about it, but science and technology determine our daily lives. Even something as simple as a hot shower or cup of coffee is possible thanks to the work of scientists.

To give an idea of how we are contributing to our research field, we organised an introduction and interactive tour through the laboratory. You can diagnose as a pathologist, discover how cell lines - made from brain tumors - look like and how they behave when they are exposed to therapy.

After this first edition, we want to thank everyone who came by! Together we have taken the first steps into the fascinating world of (brain cancer) research.

You can find photos in our gallery

Presenting at the EANS 2018

This week we got the opportunity to get the word out about our efforts and progress on generated Glioblastoma PDCLs on the 2018 European Conference for Neurosurgery in Brussels.

A living tissue bank of patient-derived models of brain cancer
V. Haemels, D. Panovska, P.-J. Creemers, A. Claeys, M. Derweduwe, L. Solie,
D. Bruyninckx, T. Roskams, R. Sciot, M. Verfaillie, P. Clement, S. De Vleeschouwer, F. De Smet

A new year full of exciting challenges

At the start of this new academic year, we would like to welcome our new members in this continuously expanding group of researchers. We now have expertise in bio-engineering, biomedical sciences, medicine and basic sciences! Our master student Pieter-Jan Creemers will be staying for the next four years as one of our newest PhD students together with Julie Messiaen. Last but not least Aranka Persyn joined us as a master student Bio-Engineering.

With a new year, it is custom to reflect on what happend in the past 365 days and make plans towards the future. This Monday we had our yearly overview of all of the different research projects running in the lab. This gave a great idea of the progress booked during this year and helped others better understand the whole picture of the research going on in our lab. Since good interpersonal relationships are a must, we went for lunch afterwards and got to know the newest team members.

With this new year, there is a lot of exciting new techniques that will be introduced, new challenges, new milestones in the collection of PDCL’s and more.

And we are ready to face them all!

Summer is here - Welcome to our new Student-Researchers

We would like to welcome Lore Bours and Michiel Wieërs, who joined our team for this summer.

Both are studying Medicine, respectively 3th and 4th year. We wish you the best of luck with your introduction into real-life research, a lot of interesting experiments, and the joy of doing challenging and innovative work!

If you yourself are interested in becoming a student-researcher at our lab, feel free to find all information here and contact us when you have any questions.

And to you all, have a great summer!

Exchanging ideas at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, USA

We would like to thank Prof. Keith Ligon (*), MD, PhD, for the opportunity to meet up with him and his research team with whom we collaborate on multiple projects. This opportunity to exchange ideas, results and receive feedback from this very experienced group is very valuable. This trip also inspired us even more to keep on searching for new therapeutic targets, genetic dependancies and more in glioblastoma.

(*) Associate Professor, Pathology, Harvard Medical School
Associate Pathologist and Neuropathologist, Pathology, Brigham And Women's Hospital
Consultant, Pathology, Boston Children's Hospital

 

Mass Cytometry Symposium April 25, 2018

The VIB-KUL Flow Cytometry Facility, KULeuven hosted a symposium on mass cytometry, due to the new CyTOF facilities that will be installed at the Fact Core, KULeuven, Campus Gasthuisberg this summer.

Prof. F. De Smet had the opportunity to present our progress studying the heterogeneity found in Glioblastoma, using the CyTOF technology.

This symposium was a great opportunity to start thinking about potential projects involving the CyToF before our machine is installed as well as meeting leaders in the field (here and abroad).

Team building

Before the Christmas Holiday we had our first teambuilding day, which resulted in half a day of discovering our own city of Leuven. Last week we had our teambuilding with the Translation Cell and Tissue Unit. After discovering the beautiful city of Ghent, we were able to escape in time from some amazing and challenging escape rooms with great communication and collaboration.