T-cell therapy for brain tumors
Dr. Anne Rios, research group leader at the Princess Máxima Center and Oncode Investigator, will focus on improving T-cell therapies for children with diffuse midline glioma (DMG), an aggressive type of brain cancer. T cells, a type of immune cell, can be modified in the lab to recognize and attack tumor cells. The success of this treatment in children depends on how these cells interact with the tumor environment.
To better understand this complex interaction, Rios will test various T-cell therapies in brain organoids. With the Vici-grant, she aims to assess how effective these therapies are for DMG and whether their tumor-fighting behavior can be enhanced. With this research, she hopes to make cell therapy more effective and widely applicable for children with a brain tumor.
Restoring the immune system after stem cell transplantation
Dr. Stefan Nierkens, research group leader at the Princess Máxima Center and research group leader and medical immunologist at UMC Utrecht, will investigate how to accelerate immune system recovery after stem cell transplantation. This is a last-resort treatment for children with difficult-to-treat blood cancer or who have immune or metabolic disorders from birth. However, stem cell transplantation is only successful in half of children. Previous research has shown that faster immune recovery improves survival rates.
With the Vici grant, Nierkens will study the factors influencing the recovery of transplanted immune cells, with a particular focus on the role of the thymus—the organ responsible for generating immune cells. By translating these insights into new treatment strategies, he aims to improve the recovery outcomes for children undergoing stem cell transplantation.
Proud and grateful
Both researchers are honored and excited to receive the Vici grant. Anne Rios: ‘This grant feels like fantastic recognition for the research in my group. It is a great opportunity to develop effective cell therapies for more children with cancer.’ Stefan Nierkens shares this sentiment: ‘This Vici grant is a wonderful acknowledgment, and the result of strong collaboration between my research groups at the Máxima Center and UMC Utrecht. Together, we can now take important steps toward better treatments for children after stem cell transplantation.’
The prestigious Vici grant is intended for advanced researchers who have shown that they can develop their own line of research. Researchers who are eligible for a Vici grant have - in NWO's words - “academic qualities that clearly exceed what is common and have established leadership and mentoring qualities.” With the help of the Vici grant, researchers can fund scientifically innovative research, expand their research group and further develop their initiated line of research. The award was granted to 8 researchers in the healthcare and medical sciences domain, by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) today. Each of them is awarded with €1.5 million for the development of an innovative line of research and to further expand their own research group.