Member info

• FACULTY:
  Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
• DEPARTMENT:
  Department of Biomolecular Medicine
• RESEARCH GROUP:
  Speleman Lab
• FUNCTION:
  Principal Investigator
• WORK ADDRESS:
  Medical Research Building 1, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, 9000 Gent, Belgium
• PUBLICATIONS:
  ORCID
• SUMMARY:
  The Speleman lab focuses on perturbed gene regulatory processes in pediatric cancer (with primary focus on neuroblastoma) as a guide towards identifying novel druggable vulnerabilities. To this end the lab uses in vitro cellular model systems including 3D-spheroid cultures, patient derived xenografts and in vivo modeling with major focus on zebrafish and the introduction of an ESC derived neuroblastoma tumor model. Cancer genomes and transcriptomes are explored by polyA and total RNA, ATAC, ChIP, CUT&RUN, 4C-sequencing and currently further methods are being explored to gain deeper insights into gene regulatory processes and enhancer biology. The lab further focusses on the role and function of dependency genes in replicative stress resistance in MYC(N) driven cancers as an entry point for novel drugging approaches. In addition to small molecules, novel drug strategies such as PROTACs and molecular glues are also under investigation.
• EMAIL:
  franki.speleman@ugent.be
• WEBLINK:
  https://www.spelemanlab.org/