Julie Nonnekens
Associate professor and principal investigator
Julie Nonnekens received her MSc in Biotechnology at Wageningen University in 2009. She obtained her PhD in cancer biology with the focus on DNA repair mechanisms at the University of Toulouse (France) in 2013. Following, she was a postdoc at the Hubrecht Institute working on ribosome biogenesis in cancer and longevity. In 2014 Julie joined the Erasmus MC Departments of Radiology & Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Genetics and is now Associate Professor. The research of her group bridges the interests of both departments in the field of DNA damage repair mechanisms and nuclear medicine to study the radiation biology of targeted radionuclide anticancer treatment to ultimately optimize treatment regimens.
Julie has received several (young investigator) awards and is principal investigator on various research grants including the prestigious ERC starting grant. She is chair of the Netherlands Society of Radiobiology (www.nvrb.org) and co-founder of the European working group on Radiobiology of Molecular Radionuclide Therapy (www.mrtradiobiology.com).
Mariangela Sabatella
Post-doctoral researcher
Project
Targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT) induces DNA damage in the tumor cells causing their death. However, not much is known about the type of DNA damage induced by the different radionuclides nor about the DNA damage response (DDR) that tumor cells activated to overcome the damage and withstand the therapy.My work aims to increase knowledge about the molecular mechanisms underlying the action and response to (novel) TRT used to treat metastatic prostate cancer and identify possible targets for combination therapies with DDR inhibitors.
Txema Heredia Genestar
Post-doctoral researcher
Project
TRT is a promising treatment for patients with metastasized cancers. TRT varies widely, with differences in radioligands, isotopes, and type and energy of the emitted radiation. I am part of the UNRANU project which aims to systematically explore and characterize the effects of various radionuclides across different tissues and tumor types. My research within this project focuses on the bioinformatics analysis of gene expression in response to radiation. By studying how cells react to different types of radiation, we aim to optimize TRT and identify the most effective approaches for specific cancer types.
Guillermo Garrido Hernandez
Post-doctoral researcher
Project
Targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT) targets tumor tissue selectively and to damage the DNA of cancer cells, leading to their death. Existing models used to estimate the biological effects of TRT are adapted from photon-based external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and do not consider key parameters that have been shown to have an effect on TRT radiobiological response.
My research aims to advance TRT-radionuclide specific models to accurately estimate TRT radiation effects in vitro and in vivo. Ultimately, this work could potentially result in novel TRT strategies for cancer treatment.
Pleun Engbers
PhD candidate
Project
Targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT) for patients with metastatic neuroendocrine tumors prolongs survival, however complete cures remain rare. Up to now, little is known about the biological effects of ionizing radiation in TRT. Gaining a better insight into the radiobiology of TRT could contribute to improving the therapeutic window of TRT. Therefore, in this project we aim to determine cell-intrinsic radiobiological parameters for TRT. We evaluate amongst others intracellular localization of the radiotracer, DNA damage kinetics, and cellular response to irradiation.
Nina Overdevest
PhD candidate
Project
Currently, there is a lack of effective treatments available for pediatric medulloblastoma and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma / diffuse midline glioma (DIPG/DMG). Therefore, the goal of this project is to determine through preclinical research whether targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT) is a potent treatment option for medulloblastoma and DIPG/DGM. This project includes the optimization of TRT for pediatric brain tumors using different tracers and radionuclides.
Duschka Kleijn
PhD candidate
Project
Radionuclide therapy (RNT) has been shown to significantly improve the survival of cancer patients. However, currently little is known about the radiobiological effects of RNT. The UNRANU project aims to systematically characterize the radiobiological and immunological effects of various radionuclides both in vivo and in vitro. My research within this project specifically focusses on the mapping of the direct radiobiological response of liver and prostate cancer cells to various radionuclides in vitro. Amongst others, we evaluate the overall radiation sensitivity and DNA repair capacity of the selected cell lines.
Ana Gebara Garcia de Lima
PhD candidate
Project
As the name implies, targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT) for different forms of cancer requires a better understanding of how different targets interact with treatment. My research focuses on how variable expression of target proteins in liver cancer may impact treatment outcomes for a novel, actinium-based TRT system. I am exploring this through cell line generation and assessment of biological outcomes after their TRT treatment.
Technical team
Rob Verhagen
Research technician
Renata Brandt
Research technician
Current students:
Jan de Jong
Alumni:
Tijmen de Wolf - PhD student (defense scheduled Q2 2027)
Justine Perrin - postdoc 2022-2026
Giulia Tamborino - postdoc 2022-2025
Stefan Roobol – postdoc 2019-2022
Nina Becx - PhD student (defense scheduled 16-12-2026)
Thom Reuvers – PhD student (defense 26-11-2024)
Danny Feijtel – PhD student (defense 31-01-2024)
Bianca Dijkstra – PhD student (UMCG, defense 16-10-2023)
Eline Ruigrok – PhD student (defense 21-03-2023)
Giulia Tamborino – PhD student (defense 26-01-2022)
Wenhao Zhang – PhD student (defense 18-02-2020)
Joke Zink – Research technician 2022-2024
Nicole Verkaik – Research technician 2020-2022
Nicole van Vliet – Research technician 2018-2020