Research focus
The Pediatric Precision Oncology Lab (PPOL) focuses on perturbed gene regulatory processes in pediatric cancer, more specifically neuroblastoma (NB). NB is an embryonal pediatric tumor arising from progenitor cells that give rise to the sympathetic nervous system. Within the PPOL lab, our team aims to gain deeper insights into neuroblastoma biology as entry point for the development of novel targeted combination therapies. We explore the role of nonmutated dependency genes with focus on genes located in region of recurrent gains or losses such as transcription factors (e.g. SOX11) and genes implicated in control of replicative stress (e.g. RRM2). A strong focus currently goes towards exploring drugging the ATR-CHK1-RRM2 axis as potential important drugging vulnerability in NB. To this end, the lab uses in vitro cellular model systems, patient derived xenografts and in vivo mouse and zebrafish modeling. Responses to novel drug combinations are evaluated through state-of-the art transcriptome, epigenome and proteome analyses including also novel spatial omics platforms. This ongoing research is part of the GOA-REINFORCE research program which the PPOL lab recently initiated with several CRIG members (Jo Vandesompele, Sven Eyckerman, Charlotte Scott, Steven Goossens, Katleen De Preter).