Meet the butterflies

The 28 butterfly doctoral students.

All 28 international Butterfly PhDs have been appointed and come from geographically diverse backgrounds. You can read more about them below.

Please note this page is under construction. We are in the process of adding a concise biography for each student to enhance and complete their respective profiles.

Research area 1 – Brain Tumors

Julie Wijns

Nationality: Belgium

Group: Kool Group

Project: R-loops in pediatric brain tumors: from cause to cure?

Lucia Bracesco

Nationality: Italy

Group: Artegiani Group

Project: Elucidating role of BAP1 in fibrolamellar carcinoma

Antonio Cobos

Nationality: Spain

Group: Hulleman Group

Project: Immunomonitoring of paediatric brain tumors.

Doga Yagiz Yurddas

Nationality: Turkey

Group: Tissing Group

Project: Improving Imaging techniques for childhood craniopharyngioma to better predict hypothalamic outcome

Akshaya Lakshmi Krishnamoorthy

Nationality: India

Group: Van Vuurden Group

Project: Crossing Barriers for local immune modulation in diffuse midline glioma

Research area 2 – Haematology Malignancies

Céline Debou

Nationality: Belgium

Group: den Boer Group

Project: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, leukemic niche, oncogenomics

Bexultan Kazybay

Nationality: Kazakhstan

Group: Heidenreich/Vormoor Group

Project: The oesteochondrial niche: how acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells reshape skeletal stem cell differentiation to create a supportive and protective niche?

Miguel Martins

Nationality: Portugal

Group: Pieters Group

Project: Therapeutic drug monitoring and developing new therapies for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia based upon genetic abnormalities, immunotherapeutic targets

Eva Sofie Baum

Nationality: Germany

Group: van Leeuwen Group

Project:Metabolic targeting of T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia to identify more effective, less toxic treatment options

Research area 3 – Solid Tumors

Rugile Januskeviciute

Nationality: Lithuania

Group: Drost Group

Project: Characterization of the immune microenvironment of rhabdomyosarcoma for the development of immunotherapy

Camilla Perosa

Nationality: Italy

Group: Looijenga Group

Project: A Normal and aberrant germ cell development

Beatrice Piotto

Nationality: Italy

Group: Molenaar Group

Project: A game of hide and seek: targeting neuroblastoma’s escape from immunotherapy

Fenja Fahrig

Nationality: Germany

Group: Molenaar Group

Project: Targeting aberrant ATRX to identify new treatment options for Neuroblastoma

Hannah Kunstek

Nationality: Croatia

Group: Nierkens Group

Project: Immune profiling in pediatric cancer

Aleksandra Letunovska

Nationality: The United Kingdom

Group: van Leeuwen Group

Project: ALiquid biopsies in neuroblastoma, focus on cell free DNA and messenger RNA

Amirhossein Masroor

Nationality: Iran

Group: van den Heuvel-Eibrink Group

Project: Genetic susceptibility and prevention of CP-induced hearing loss in childhood cancer patients

Mianyong Ding

Nationality: China

Group:van den Heuvel-Eibrink/Janssens Group

Project: AI to enhance RT planning for children with renal tumors

Leonor de Sousa Teles

Nationality: Portugal

Group: van Noesel Group

Project:Targeting the SSR2A receptor with [68]Ga-SATO in NBL patients

Alice Larsson

Nationality: Sweden

Group: Hoeijmakers/Vermeij Group

Project: The use of organotypic tissue slices for assessing prevention against treatment-induced side-effects via nutritional preconditioning interventions