Babette Hoen graduated from Ghent University(Belgium) with a master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences, majored in oncology. Following this, she started her PhD project at the Princess Máxima Center in August 2021.
Patients with relapsed B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL) have a poor prognosis, and therefore especially these patients could benefit from new, innovative drug combinations. During her PhD project a drug screening will be performed to identify synergies between conventional chemotherapeutic drugs and precision medicines. An ex vivo leukemic niche will be created by co-culturing mesenchymal stromal cells and BCP-ALL cells. Additionally, immune cells will be added to this leukemic niche, which will allow including immunotherapy into the combination screening.