Hi there! For the coming weeks, our blog will be dedicated to our Young SIOP Award winners!
Please meet Zeinab van Gestel-Fadaie, YI from the Netherlands, in their own words.
I am a committed, and organized person with broad interests and a passion for science and research, a young scientist who likes to challenge herself and learn new skills. During my study in human genetics back at home (Iran), I showed a great interest in genetics and molecular biology. I immigrated to the Netherlands to pursue a career in science. I have obtained PhD in Human genetics departments in RadboudUMC in Nijmegen. As a PhD researcher, I have investigated the identification of disease-causing variants in inherited retinal diseases. In this period, I learned how to analyze large sequencing datasets and perform in vitro functional assays.
I pursue my career as postdoctoral researcher at Princess Maxima Center for pediatric oncology in Utrecht where we investigate the application of liquid biopsy sequencing in pediatric tumors. The diagnosis of any tumor is based on morphology and genetic analysis which is only possible by biopsy. However, it is not always feasible to obtain tissue tumor biopsy due to its invasive nature. Also, the tumor heterogeneity and minimal residual disease (MRD) will remain undetected. To overcome these problems, liquid biopsies can be a non-invasive alternative. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in liquid biopsies from patients with cancer can be used for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. The level of ctDNA at diagnosis correlates with tumor burden. Liquid biopsies also overcome the problem of spatial or (sub)clonal tumor heterogeneity, facilitating increased diagnostic accuracy and enabling MRDs detection and therapy response monitoring. Furthermore, ctDNA offers the opportunity to investigate clonal evolution of the tumor and possible distant lesions throughout the body at several time points during treatment. We aim to translate ctDNA-based sequencing approaches of liquid biopsies into pediatric patients – specifically, those with solid tumors.
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