PhD candidates 'How does a neuronal transcription factor cause acute leukemia in infants?'

In two intertwined PhD projects, we will study how this transcription factor affects chromatin biology and transcription to deregulate cell behavior. Transcriptomic and proteomic approaches will be used to understand which proteins are hijacked by HMX3 to deregulate epigenetic modifications and gene expression programs. In addition, a drug repurposing screen will be executed to determine whether known drugs exist that inhibit HMX3.

State-of-the-art models (genetically engineered blood stem cells and primary patient cells), and techniques (CRISPR gene editing, ATAC-, ChIP-, RNA-seq and label-free quantitative mass spec) will be used with the goal to gain a better insight in disease pathogenesis and to identify new rationally defined therapeutic targets.

The two PhD projects will be executed in the framework of a longlasting collaboration between the Martens (Department of Molecular Biology, Radboud University) and the Van der Reijden labs (Laboratory of Hematology, Radboud University Medical Center).You and the other PhD candidate will work in a team with clinicians, bioinformaticians and molecular biologists.