During my PhD project, I will be focusing on the identification of novel microproteins and pediatric tumor-specific neoantigens. My work will be a combination of wet lab experiments and dry lab / bioinformatic analyses. A large part will be based on a technique called ribosome profiling, or Ribo-seq, where ribosome-protected mRNA fragments are sequenced and characterized in order to get a detailed measurement of global protein translation. This way, we can identify translation events that are specific to certain tissues or to pediatric cancers, revealing possible new epitopes which can then be targeted with immunotherapy. Eventually, our goal is to combine translational, transcriptional and mutational data to help the development of improved, patient-specific targeted therapies.
Contact information
Email: D.A.Hofman-3@prinsesmaximacentrum.nl