MD. Anniek de Jager

RESEARCH

My PhD project focuses on the identification of tissue and/or tumor specific peptides that can be used for flow cytometry-based detection of tumor recirculating macrophages in the peripheral blood of cancer patients. In order to do so, I study colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and melanoma tumors, employing high-end flow cytometry, mass spectrometry, confocal microscopy and RNA sequencing studies, to identify target proteins on tumor cells and to understand the protease content and digestion processes occurring in tumor associated macrophages. This information will help us to develop a minimally invasive tool for diagnosis and/or monitoring of cancer patients, and possibly also in other diseases.

CURRICULUM VITAE

In 2018 I obtained my medical degree after finishing my Master in Medicine at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Medical Center in Amsterdam. I performed my master’s research internship in Prof. dr. Jacques J.M. van Dongen’s group at the Department of Immunology of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. My project was focused on the immunophenotypic and functional characterization of human monocytes and macrophages, in the context of the development of an in vitro model to be used for evaluation of protein digestion patterns upon efferocytosis of tumor cells by macrophages. After completing my master, I started a PhD in the same group, in the meantime relocated to the Leiden University Medical Center.