News
News from the lab
April - Congratulations to Joshua for receiving an FWO PhD fellowship! He will study neutrophils in Pancreatic cancer metastasis
January - Under the promotorship of Sarah-Maria Fendt , and in collaboration with Christine Desmedt (Oncology), our labs have received a long-term Methusalem funding to support our breast cancer research program! This funding will allow us to uncover the mechanisms of breast cancer onset and progression in physiological settings, and to carry these insights to clinical trials.
October - Congratulations to Apostolos from our lab who has received the Young Gold Speaker Award at the Belgian Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025 (October 24th) for presenting his work on melanoma lymph node metastasis
July - Colinda has received the FEBS Anniversary Prize 2025. This prize awards the upcoming generation of senior scientists for their achievements in the field of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
May - Colinda is nominated for the EOS Pipet 2025
Waarom worden niet alle mutaties kanker? | EOS Wetenschap
April - Stefania has achieved the 3rd place poster presentation award at EMBO workshop: Chromosome Segregation and Aneuploidy, Stresa, Italy
April - Marta has won the ENBDC DeOme Award 2025.
March - Colinda participated in the podcast Called to Science. What drives a scientist? How do career twists, doubt, and discovery shape a life in research?
Listen to the podcast of Colinda and other VIB scientist here.
February - Marika, Larissa, and Colinda received the GILEAD Breast Cancer Research Award to study the biomarker potential of nipple aspirate fluid as predictor for early stage breast cancer.
December - Happy Holidays Party: Dancing with the stars
December – New publication alert in Nature! We discovered that the estrous cycle impacts the sensitivity of chemotherapy in breast cancer.
Link to paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08276-1
News and views: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03847-8
Nature podcast: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03986-y
Press release: https://vib.be/en#/news/does-the-menstrual-cycle-influence-the-effect-of-chemotherapy
November – The Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF), Inc. has granted the Alumni Award 2024 in the field of biomedical sciences to Colinda Scheele for her research work in breast cancer using intravital imaging technology.
October - We are very proud of Marcel Issler, who secured an FWO PhD fellowship! He will explore the mechanics of branching in the mammary gland.
September - Out in Nature today! How is healthy breast tissue harnessed against tumor initiation? We identified 3 protection mechanisms against cancer formation (Link to paper: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39232148/). Huge congratulations to Marta Ciwinska, PhD student in the Scheele team and the first author of this study.
News and Views: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02658-1
Research highlight: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41568-024-00762-y
Press releases:
https://vib.be/en#/news/menstrual-cycle-influences-the-spread-of-mutant-cells-in-mammary-tissue
https://www.cancergrandchallenges.org/news/team-precision-playing-the-long-game-to-get-an-early-view-of-tumourigenesis
May - Paper alert in The Journal of Pathology: We used 3Dpathology and CNVseq to understand the evolution of precancer in the human breast. Pre-malignant breast transformations develop within mutant clonal fields of morphologically normal-looking ducts. You can find the paper here: https://tinyurl.com/2cka7wwc We made the cover! ?
December - Happy Holiday Party: Circus!
October - Congratulations to Stefania Pedrotti for receiving a 4 year PhD fellowship to study the impact of chromosomal instability on mammary tumor progression
July - Congratulations to our postdoc Larissa Mourao for receiving a 4 year postdoctoral mandate from Stichting Tegen Kanker to study the dynamics of early breast cancer
May - Lookalike of an aquarium plant? Our research highlighted in Sonar!
Link: https://stories.kuleuven.be/en/stories/lookalike-of-an-aquarium-plant
April - Publication alert in Cancer Cell (Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccell.2023.04.002): Can breast cancer diagnostics be improved? We identified 2 growth patterns of ductal carcinoma in situ which can predict invasive progression into breast cancer.
Press release: http://prez.ly/7Axc VRTnws: https://vrtnws.be/p.Pq7MeA8E4
December - Not one, but two FWO project grants for the lab! We are very excited to start working on the dynamics of liver metastasis (project 1) and the mechanics of branching (project 2).
October - Out in Nature Reviews Methods Primers: A guide for "Multiphoton Intravital Microscopy of Rodents" written by intravital microscopy enthusiasts from across the globe Nature
October - Congratulations to Marika for receiving an FWO PhD fellowship! Marika will study the signalling dynamics of mammary gland remodelling during development and disease
September - A presentation (by Marta) and a poster prize (by Marika) at the Emerging Concepts in Cell &Developmental Biology Conference in Aarhus #ProudPI
March - Are you wondering how to generate branched murine mammary organoids? We are excited to share our methods with you: 10.3389/fphys.2022.826107
Great work by Marika, Sjanie and Larissa, congratulations!
October - It's a happy day for Marta! She receives an FWO PhD fellowship to trace the dynamics of mammary tumor initiation
Colinda Scheele received a FEBS Excellence Award with funding over 3 years.
Read the interview with Colinda in c2w: "de kankerstamcel op de hielen".
Colinda was appointed as Assistant professor at KU Leuven.
Colinda received the 2020 Antoni van Leeuwenhoek award for her extraordinary research into stem cells and the development of breast cancer. Read more
Colinda Scheele joined the VIB Center for Cancer Biology as Junior Group Leader
Colinda received the PhD of the Year award (CD&D PhD Programme), and the Bright Mind Award, Dare to Cross Over! (Utrecht University), an award for outstanding interdisciplinary research