Veerle Melotte
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Dr. Veerle Melotte

Associate Professor, Principal Investigator Experimental Cancer Pathology Group

Korte beschrijving

During her PhD period, which she finalized in 2010, Dr. Veerle Melotte identified NDRG4 methylation as a promising biomarker for the early detection for colorectal cancer. This biomarker is incorporated in the FDA-approved Cologuard® test (Exact Science, Madison, USA) which is currently in use in the USA. After her PhD, she became an assistant professor at Maastricht University Medical Center (The Netherlands), and obtained several personal grants (KWF personal grant - VENI) to start her own research line. Currently her group focuses on the role of the enteric nervous system in colorectal carcinogenesis.

In addition to her position in Maastricht, she holds a part-time position at the Erasmus Mc Rotterdam (The Netherlands) since 2016.

Aandachtsgebieden

  • Enteric nervous system
  • Neuroscience
  • Colorectal cancer

Contact

E-mail: Veerle.melotte@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Telefoon: +31(0) 43 387 22 10

 

Deelnames, projecten en nevenfuncties

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded Veerle Melotte a Vidi grant of EUR 800,000. This will enable her to further develop her own innovative line of research over the next five years.

When colorectal cancer gets nervous

Even though it is currently well established that neurons within the colorectal tumor-microenvironment negatively impact patients prognosis, knowledge regarding their contribution to colorectal carcinogenesis remains a black box. In this project Dr. Veerle Melotte (Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life sciences, FHML) will perform an in-depth characterization of these tumor-associated-neurons by identifying their origin and molecular profile. Moreover Dr. Melotte will investigate how these neurons regulate colorectal cancer hallmarks.