Three new research projects with support from KWF

Three new research projects at the Prinses Máxima Center, can start with funding from the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF). Two of the grants are Young Investigator Grants for talented early-career researchers. Each project aims, in its own way, to contribute to safer and more personalized treatments for children with cancer. Together, they support the Máxima’s mission: to cure every child with cancer, with the best possible quality of life.

Earlier detection of serious complications

Dr. Coco de Koning, assistant professor at UMC Utrecht and postdoctoral researcher in the Nierkens group at the Máxima Center, has received a Young Investigator Grant. With this funding, she will investigate how blood biomarkers can help detect acute graft-versus-host disease (aGvHD) at an early stage. This serious complication can occur after a stem cell transplant, when donor immune cells attack healthy tissues.

De Koning will follow 120 children undergoing transplantation and will also study stored bowel and skin tissue samples to gain a better understanding of how the disease develops.

‘If we can identify which children are at risk of developing severe aGvHD at an earlier stage, we may be able to intervene sooner and provide more targeted treatment in the future,’ says De Koning. ‘This could lead to fewer complications and a better quality of life after transplantation.’

Improving the treatment of brain tumors

Dr. Akke Bakker, a technical physician in the Van Vuurden group at the Máxima Center, has also been awarded a Young Investigator Grant. Working with UMC Utrecht, she will study whether focused ultrasound can temporarily create small openings in the blood-brain barrier, allowing medicines to reach brain tumors more effectively. Using specialized ImmunoPET scans, her team will then measure whether the drug actually reaches the tumor.

‘Many promising drugs do not reach brain tumors in sufficient amounts,’ says Bakker. ‘With this research, we aim to use PET imaging to directly show whether focused ultrasound can help make treatments more effective and ultimately improve children’s quality of life.’

Developing safer new therapies

Dr. Sebastiaan van Heesch, together with Dr. Fabio Marino of Utrecht University, will build the first comprehensive atlas of proteins and protein fragments in healthy pediatric tissues. For this project, he will use various resources including tissue samples from the Máxima Center’s tumor donation program

Proteins can serve as targets for new precision medicines and cancer immunotherapies. By mapping proteins in healthy tissues, the researchers hope to better predict whether new treatments may unintentionally damage healthy tissue.

‘Children are not small adults,’ says Van Heesch. ‘With this atlas, we aim to create a pediatric-specific safety reference that will help bring new therapies to the clinic more quickly and more safely.’

KWF has awarded a total of €2.7 million to support childhood cancer research at the Prinses Máxima Center through these three projects. The two Young Investigator Grants are funded by Alpe d’HuZes.