Mutant clones in normal tissues

Background

Somatic mutations are small DNA errors that accumulate in the genome of ageing cells. These mutations sporadically result in a cellular growth advantage, especially when they occur in cancer genes. The sequential accumulation of these so-called driver mutations eventually leads to the formation of malignant tumors. Recent evidence suggests that they also underlie micro-clone formation in multiple histologically normal epithelial tissues, providing new insights in early human carcinogenesis.

What we do

We aim to characterize the somatic mutational landscape of the human body using post-mortem tissues obtained from clinically well-annotated whole-body donors, using different DNA and RNA sequencing approaches.

Who is involved

Tom
Luijts

PhD Student

Sofie
Hoogstoel

PhD Student

Louis Detremmerie

Master Student

Lars Standaert

Master Student

Emily Delbeke

Master Student

Ellen De Clercq

Master Student

Lars Bogaert

Master Student

Alexander Truijen

Master Student

Viktor François

Master Student

Yung-Chan Chen

Master Student

Jimmy
Van den Eynden

Principal Investigator

Research output

Poster

  Nov 15, 2023

EMBL Cancer Genomics Conference 2023

Tom Luijts, Sofie Hoogstoel

Presentation

  Jan 6, 2023

Nederlandse Anatomen Vereniging conference 2023

The potential of whole-body donors for understanding early tumor evolution - Tom Luijts

Article

  Jun 20, 2022

A clinically annotated post-mortem approach to study multi-organ somatic mutational clonality in normal tissues

Tom Luijts, Kerryn Elliott, Joachim Siaw, Joris Van de Velde, Elien Beyls, Arne Claeys, Tim Lammens, Erik Larsson, Wouter Willaert, Anne Vral and Jimmy Van den Eynden

Presentation

  May 23, 2022

CRIG Oncopoint Symposium 2022: a festive edition

A clinically annotated post-mortem approach to study multi-organ somatic mutational clonality in histologically healthy tissues - Tom Luijts

Poster

  Nov 22, 2021