Regenerative medicine holds great potential as a (curative) treatment for a large number of human diseases. An important part of this research field regards stem cell therapy based on the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells with subsequent (autologous) transplantation. However, multiple safety concerns have been raised including the potential malignant transformation within possible residual stem cell populations and subsequent tumor formation (mostly teratoma). My PhD project will mainly focus on finding potential (epi)genetic and molecular hallmarks that can identify such populations based on knowledge gained from germ cell tumors, diagnosed in pediatric and/or young adults. The identified hallmarks could be developed into predictive tools to develop and implement safe regenerative stem cell protocols. This project is a collaboration with the group of Prof. dr. Eelco de Koning at the LUMC (Leiden) as part of the reNEW consortium specifically focusing on stem cell therapy as a curative treatment for diabetes mellitus type I.
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