Individual
ESR projects
Research project
Dissect haematopoietic stem/progenitor cells-bone marrow niche interaction on a single cell level in low risk myelodysplastic syndromes (WP1)
Rationale and objectives
A key open question in myelodysplastic syndromes is how haematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) can gain a clonal advantage in the bone marrow. We hypothesize that del(5q) affects the mutated HSCPs but also the non-mutated stroma.
We plan:
• To combine genetic fate tracing, scRNA-seq and scATAC-seq with multiplex high-resolution, high-throughput imaging to characterize the HSPC and niche cell heterogeneity and their cross-talk.
• To identify gene signatures and signalling pathways in both compartments and compare with human data of the Götze lab.
• To functionally validate altered pathways in vitro and in vivo and test them as potential therapeutic targets.
Envisioned secondments
University of Bergen (Norway, 2 months), BioBam Bioinformatics (Spain, 2 months).
PhD programme
PhD in Molecular Biology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam.