Associate Professor - Group leader
Dr. Martijn Verdoes
Martijn Verdoes obtained his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Leiden University under the supervision of Prof. H. S. Overkleeft and Prof. G. A. van der Marel in 2008.
His thesis work mainly focused on the design and synthesis of activity-based inhibitors and probes to study proteasome function. In 2009, Martijn obtained an NWO Rubicon fellowship to join the lab of Prof. M. Bogyo at the Stanford School of Medicine, where he developed quenched activity-based probes (qABPs) for non-invasive imaging of cancer. One of these probes resulted in the development of VGT-309, which is currently in clinical development for fluorescence guided surgery of cancer.
Inspired by the observation that his qABPs got activated by specific immune cells in tumors he returned to the Netherlands to join the Department of Tumor Immunology at the Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences (RIMLS), Radboudumc in Nijmegen in 2013. Since 2016, he is leading a multidisciplinary research group using chemistry to study and manipulate the immune system, in particular in cancer. He was awarded an Institute for Chemical Immunology (ICI) Tenure Track Fellowship, as well as an ERC Starting Grant “CHEMCHECK” and in 2019 he secured a tenured Assistant Professor position. In 2022 he became a PI in the IMAGINE! Gravitation project and he was promoted to Associate Professor (with ius promovendi) in 2023.
Since January 2024 Martijn holds a parttime Associate Professor position at the Department of Immunology at the LUMC, Leiden where he will permanently move in September 2024. His lab will continue to develop strategies for chemistry-based precision immunotherapy using small molecules, nanomaterials and antibody targeted approaches to i) induce antigen-specific immune responses, ii) to modulate specific immune cells, such as macrophages in the tumor microenvironment and iii) to monitor specific immune cell phenotype and function in vitro and in vivo.
Current and previous positions
2024-present Associate Professor, Dept. of Immunology, LUMC
2023-present Associate Professor, Dept. of Medical BioSciences, Radboudumc
2019-2023 Assistant Professor (tenured), Dept. of Tumor Immunology, Radboudumc
2016-2019 Assistant Professor (tenure track), Dept. of Tumor Immunology, Radboudumc
2013-2016 Senior-Postdoc, Dept. of Tumor Immunology, Radboudumc
2009-2012 Postdoc, Department of Pathology, Stanford School of Medicine
(CA, USA)
Education
2008 Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, Leiden University
2004 Master of Science in Organic Chemistry, Leiden University
2002 Bachelor of Science in Organic Chemistry, Hogeschool Leiden
Publications
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Inhibition of CSF-1R and IL-6R prevents conversion of cDC2s into immune incompetent tumor-induced DC3s boosting DC-driven therapy potential
Becker AMD, Decker AH, Flórez-Grau G, Bakdash G, Röring RJ, Stelloo S, Vermeulen M, Piet B, Aarntzen EHJG, Verdoes M, de Vries IJM
Cell Rep Med. 2024 Feb 20;5(2):101386. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2023.101386. Epub 2024 Jan 18. PMID: 38242119; PMCID: PMC10897516.
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pH and ROS Responsiveness of Polymersome Nanovaccines for Antigen and Adjuvant Codelivery: An In Vitro and In Vivo Comparison
Jäger E, Ilina O, Dölen Y, Valente M, van Dinther EAW, Jäger A, Figdor CG, Verdoes M
Biomacromolecules. 2024 Mar 11;25(3):1749-1758. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.3c01235. Epub 2024 Jan 18. PMID: 38236997; PMCID: PMC10934262.
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Controlling Antigen Fate in Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines by Targeting Dendritic Cell Receptors
Wijfjes Z, van Dalen FJ, Le Gall CM, Verdoes M
Mol Pharm. 2023 Oct 2;20(10):4826-4847. doi: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.3c00330. Epub 2023 Sep 18. PMID: 37721387; PMCID: PMC10548474.
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Inhibitory prodrug mechanism for cysteine cathepsin-targeted self-controlled drug release
van Dalen FJ, Verdoes M
J Enzyme Inhib Med Chem. 2022 Dec;37(1):2566-2573. doi: 10.1080/14756366.2022.2122961. PMID: 36120947; PMCID: PMC9487864.
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Enzyme-Activatable Chemokine Conjugates for In Vivo Targeting of Tumor-Associated Macrophages
Barth ND, Van Dalen FJ, Karmakar U, Bertolini M, Mendive-Tapia L, Kitamura T, Verdoes M, Vendrell M
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2022 Oct 10;61(41):e202207508. doi: 10.1002/anie.202207508. Epub 2022 Sep 5. PMID: 35993914; PMCID: PMC9826351.
Groups:
Chemical Immunology
