VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology lambrechtslab

Lab Alumni

We are proud to have contributed to the careers of the following former lab members:

 

  • Francesca Lodi, PhD (2018-2025). 'A pan-cancer dissection of the tumor microenvironment transcriptomic landscape'; First authorship in Cell Reports Medicine 2025.
  • Amelie Franken, PhD (2019-2024). 'CD4+ T cell activation distinguishes response to anti-PD-L1+anti-CTLA4 therapy from anti-PD-L1 monotherapy'; Shared first authorship in Immunity 2024. Current position: Postdoc at University of Geneva
  • Ayse Bassez, PhD (2018-2022). 'Mapping intratumoral dynamics during immune checkpoint blockade in breast cancer by single-cell profiling’; Shared first authorship in Nature Medicine 2021. Current position: Data Scientist at VIB Innovation and Business / Discovery Sciences.
  • Laurien Van Dyck, PhD (2015-2021; FWO funding). 'Cryptic transcripts: the masked heroes that break tumor immunotolerance and rescue the immunotherapy response'; Shared first authorship in Genome Biology 2020. Current position: Coordinator of the Grand Challenges Program at VIB.
  • Junbin Qian, Post-Doc (2017-2020). 'A pan-cancer blueprint of the heterogeneous tumor microenvironment revealed by single-cell profiling'; First authorship in Cell Research 2020. Current position: Assistant professor in women’s hospital of Zhejiang University.
  • Alexandra Corella, Post-Doc (2020-2021). Current position: Scientist at BioLegend.
  • Hui Zhao, Post-Doc (2011-2019; FWO funding); First authorship in Elife. 2014 Aug 1;3:e02725. Current position: Senior Bioinformatics Analyst position in Cancer Research UK.
  • Flora d'Anna, PhD (2014-2018); The Two-Way Interaction Between Tumour Hypoxia And DNA Methylation’; Shared first authorship in Nature. 2016 Sep 1;537(7618):63-68. Current position: Research Data Manager at ELIXIR.
  • Xiaowen Chen, PhD (Feb 2018): ‘The Role of Mevalonate Metabolism and Blood Flow in Developmental Angiogenesis’.
  • Bernard Thienpont, Post-Doc (2012-2017; FWO-funding). First authorship in Nature. 2016 Sep 1;537(7618):63-68. Current position: Professor Laboratory for Functional Epigenetics; Department of Human Genetics
  • Dominiek Smeets, PhD (2009-2019): ‘Tumor heterogeneity in relapsed or metastatic breast, ovarian and colorectal cancer’; First authorship in Nat Commun. 2018 Oct 5;9(1):4112. Current position: Field Application Scientist at Illumina.
  • Jeroen Depreeuw, PhD (2013-2017): ‘New molecular insights based on genetic alterations in gynecological cancers’; First authorship in Clin Cancer Res. 2017 Dec 1;23(23):7232-7241. Current position: data scientist at Biocartis.
  • Els Wauters, PhD (Dec 2015; FWO funding): ‘Exploring the common genetic and epigenetic basis for COPD, emphysema and lung cancer’; First authorship in Eur. Heart J. 2013 Apr;34(13):993-1001. Current position: Staff member UZ Leuven, pneumo-oncologist and assistant professor KU Leuven.
  • Matthieu Moisse, PhD (Nov 2015; FWO funding); ‘Next generation sequencing: a tool to reveal the genetic origin of human diseases’; First authorship in Human Molecular Genetics 1;21(11):2412-9; 2012. Current position: post-doc KU Leuven.
  • Betül Tuba Yesilyurt, PhD (2008-2013); Functional validation of recurrent mutations in microsatellite instable endometrial tumors.
  • Bart Claes, PhD (2008-2012); Identification and functional study of a VEGFR-1 locus predicting bevacizumab treatment outcome (IWT funding); First authorship publication: A genetic locus in VEGFR-1 predicts bevacizumab treatment outcome in randomised phase III studies of metastatic pancreatic cancer and renal cell carcinoma. Lancet Oncology; 13 (7): 724-33, 2012. Current employer: Biocartis where he serves as a Scientist Oncology and is responsible for oncology biomarker assay development.
  • Joke Reumers, Post-Doc (2009-2012); A pipeline for the analysis of full cancer genomes (FWO funding); First authorship publication: Optimized filtering reduces the error rate in detecting genomic variants by short-read sequencing. Nature Biotechnology; 30(1):61-68, 2011. Current employer: Janssen Pharmaceutica where she is responsible for DNA and RNA analyses.
  • Joke Dhondt (2007-2011); The protective effect of VEGF-B and its receptor FLT1 in peripheral neuropathy (IWT funding); First authorship publication: Neuronal FLT1 receptor and its selective ligand VEGF-B protect against retrograde degeneration of sensory neurons. Faseb J; 25(5):1461-1473, 2011. Current employer: Universal Medica (Paris), where she works as a Scientific Coordinator.
  • An Verheyen, PhD (2007-2011); The role of VEGF in paclitaxel - induced peripheral neuropathy (IWT funding); First authorship publication: Systemic anti-VEGF therapies induce a painful sensory neuropathy. Brain; 135 (Pt 9): 2629-41, 2012. Current employer: Janssen Pharmaceutica
  • Ian Buysschaert (2006-2010); Phenotypic Dissection of the Chromosome 9p21.3 Locus in Atherosclerosis and Ischemic Heart Disease (IWT funding); First authorship publication: A variant at chromosome 9p21 is associated with recurrent myocardial infarction and cardiac death after acute coronary syndrome: The GRACE Genetics Study. European Heart Journal; 31(9):1132-1141. Ian Buysschaert is currently completing his specialization as a cardiologist at ZNA Middelheim in Antwerpen.

 

Alumni PhD students (co-promotor):

  • Laura Elst (September 2025): 'Single-cell Atlas of Penile Cancer Reveals TP53 Mutations as a Driver of an Aggressive Phenotype, Irrespective of Human Papillomavirus Status, and Provides Clues for Treatment Personalization'; First authorship in European Urology 2024.
  • Tina Laga (May 2025): 'Single-Cell Immune Profiling in Ovarian Germ Cell and Sex Cord-Stromal Tumours'; First authorship in British Journal of Cancer 2025.
  • Simon Feys (October 2024): 'Lower respiratory tract single-cell RNA sequencing and neutrophil extracellular trap profiling of COVID-19-associated pulmonary aspergillosis: a single centre, retrospective, observational study'; First authorship in The Lancet Microbe 2024.
  • Dries Deleersnijder (September 2024): 'Differentiating the etiologies of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis: Unraveling differences in disease epidemiology and single-cell pathophysiology'
  • Michel Bila (March 2024): 'Neoadjuvant durvalumab and tremelimumab in resectable locally advanced SCC of the oral cavity: DUTRELASCO study.'; First authorship in Journal of Clinical Oncology 2023.
  • Liselore Loverix (October 2023): 'PARP inhibitor predictive value of the Leuven HRD test compared with Myriad MyChoice CDx PLUS HRD on 468 ovarian cancer patients from the PAOLA-1/ENGOT-ov25 trial'; First authorship in European Journal of Cancer 2023.
  • Sarah Cappuyns (September 2023): 'PD-1 negative CD45RA effector-memory CD8 T-cells and CXCL10 macrophages are essential for response to checkpoint inhibition in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma'; First authorship in Nature Communications 2023.
  • Pierre Van Mol (September 2023): 'Single-cell transcriptomics identifies pathogenic T-helper 17.1 cells and pro-inflammatory monocytes in immune checkpoint inhibitor-related pneumonitis'; First authorship in Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2022.
  • Siel Olbrecht (July 2021): 'Comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of high-grade serous tubo-ovarian carcinoma using single-cell RNA-sequencing.'; First authorship in Genome Medicine 2021. Current position: Staff member UZ Leuven, Gynaecologist-Oncologist.
  • Adriaan Vanderstichele (January 2019): ‘Liquid biopsies in ovarian cancer: clinical applications of cell-free DNA analysis’; First authorship in Clin Cancer Res. 2017 May 1;23(9):2223-2231. Current position: Staff member UZ Leuven, Gynaecologist-Oncologist.
  • Line Heylen(September 2017): ‘Ischemia in kidney transplantation: clinical risk factor and epigenetic modifier’; First authorship in Kidney Int. 2019 Nov;96(5):1195-1204. Current position: nephrologist at ZOL Hospital Genk, Belgium.
  • Michael Olvedy(June 2017): ‘Integrative and comparative genomics identifies novel melanoma tumor-suppressor genes’; First authorship in J Clin Invest. 2017 Jun 1;127(6):2310-2325. Current position: Junior Policy Officer - Blue Book trainee at ERCEA.
  • Tine Cuppens (June 2017): ‘Identification of novel potential therapeutic targets in uterine sarcomas - From human sample analysis to preclinical validation’; First authorship in Int J Cancer. 2018 Mar 15;142(6):1230-1243. Current position: Medical Science Liaison Oncology at AstraZenica.
  • Barbara Brouwers (June 2016): ‘Study on tumor biology and the aging effect of chemotherapeutic treatment in older breast cancer patients’; First authorship in Breast Cancer Res. 2017 Jul 3;19(1):78. Current position: oncologist AZ Sint-Jan Hospital, Bruges, Belgium.
  • Evelyn Despierre (December 2015): ‘Role of genomic alterations as prognostic and predictive factors in epithelial ovarian cancer’; First authorship in Target Oncol. 2015 Dec;10(4):583-96. Current position: gynaecologist at OLV Hospital Aalst, Belgium.
  • Sandrina Lambrechts (November 2015): ‘Genetic alterations guiding ovarian cancer therapy’; First authorship in Eur J Cancer. 2016 Jan;53:51-64. Current position: gynaecologist-oncologist at Maastricht UMC+.
  • Stefanie Schrauwen (April 2015): ‘Establishment of preclinical endometrial carcinoma models and evaluation of new treatment options’; First authorship in Gynecol Oncol. 2015 Jul;138(1):165-73. Current position: Protocol Manager at Bristol-Myers Squibb.
  • Andrés García Dios (June 2013): ‘Somatic mutations and copy number alterations as prognostic markers for primary endometrial cancer’; First authorship in Gynecol Oncol. 2013 Feb;128(2):327-34.