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About
We aim to increase the understanding of glycosylation in blood cell development. Our goal is to exploit this knowledge for therapeutic benefit in blood cancers and bleeding disorders.
Aims
- Deciphering how glycosylation affects master regulators of blood cell proliferation and differentiation.
- Identification of biomarkers and therapeutic targets for myeloid blood cancers and bleeding disorders.
Protein sugarcoating (glycosylation) is crucial for every cell in your body, yet glycosylation is a vastly understudied topic. Various “omics” techniques have been used to investigate hematopoiesis, but glycomics is still largely unexplored.
Some types of glycosylation such as C-mannosylation consist of a single sugar molecule, while others such as N-glycosylation consists of complex sugar chains. A major class of proteins containing glycosylation are receptors crucial for cell growth, immune response, and drug transport. Since many glycosylated proteins are expressed on the cell surface and since aberrant glycosylation causes intracellular stress, I envision that glycosylation provides biomarkers for prognosis and novel anchor points for therapeutic targeting. In collaboration with the Radboud Consortium for Glycosciences and (international) partners, my team uses cutting edge molecular technologies to identify normal and aberrant glycosylation in myeloid blood cells.
Aberrant glycosylation may be used as biomarker for blood cancer or chemotherapy resistance, and if present on the cell surface, provide novel anchor points for therapeutic targeting.Glycosylation plays a major role in regulating the function of master regulators of blood cell differentiation such as the thrombopoietin receptor MPL. MPL is essential for the development of cells that make platelets (megakaryocytes). Platelets are indispensable for blood coagulation. Both a shortage as well as an access of platelets causes diseases, and is associated with either bleeding disorders or myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN).
Using molecular and cellular techniques, we determine the role of glycosylation in blood cell development, and test whether existing drugs, novel compounds, and new drug combinations could be used to target MPN and other myeloid blood cancers. In addition to cell surface receptors, we investigate how glycosylation affects the functioning of epigenetic regulators that are driving gene programs in blood cell development.
Internationally we are also known as
Marneth lab.
