KWF awards Amsterdam UMC 1.9 million euros for fundamental cancer research. The money will be allocated to five studies. The knowledge gathered by the researchers is essential for breakthroughs in the prevention, detection and treatment of cancer. One of the five honored studies is Marieke Fransen's research into lung cancer.
Fundamental lung cancer research
Marieke Fransen is a Senior Postdoc Researcher Translational Immuno-oncology at Amsterdam UMC. She is a biomedical scientist specialized in Immuno-oncology with over 20 years of experience studying immuno-modulatory antibody therapy and (cancer-)vaccine-development, in both pre-clinical and clinical settings. When looking at Marieke's qualities she is ambitious, insightful, original, passionate about science and an enthusiastic teacher.
Marieke Fransen will use KWF's funding to research the "Use of spontaneous tumor antibody responses as a biomarker and enhancer of anti-tumor immune responses." She will receive an amount of €192,450.50 for this purpose.
To fight cancer is to understand cancer
The goal of fundamental research is to understand how cancer cells work, where their weaknesses are and how to target them. Fundamental research takes place in laboratories and involves the study of genes, proteins and all the biological processes that take place in or between (cancer) cells. The resulting knowledge forms the basis of new treatments.
Fundamental research often takes a lengthy process, but is ultimately the source of new breakthroughs and medical-scientific progress.
Read more information (in Dutch) on the KWF website.