Kika young investigator award for René Marke

3 October 2017

René Marke, PhD candidate at the Laboratory of Pediatric Oncology, theme Cancer development and immune defense, has received the Tom Voûte Young Investigator Award 2017. This price is handed out each year bij Kika (kinderen kankervrij) for excellent research in the area of pediatric oncology.

As part of his thesis work in the group of Frank van Leeuwen, René has been studying role of the lymphoid transcription factor IKZF1 in glucocorticoid therapy resistance in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Rene found that loss of IKZF1 function in ALL contributes to glucocorticoid resistance in the patient, which may explain why patients carrying this deletion have a less favorable prognosis. His current research focuses on the mechanisms by which IKZF1 loss leads to glucocorticoid resistance, and the identification of molecular therapies that can improve therapy response is this high risk ALL subgroup.

The jury was impressed by the scientific quality of the work, which was presented by René on 28 September at the annual KiKa science day organized by the Prinses Maxima Center for Pediatric Oncology.

Tom Voûte Young Investigator Award 2017: link


 

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