Specialization
Skin Cancer / Gene expression / Cancer Biology / Hypoxia / Immunology
Focus of research
Keratinocyte cancer is the most frequent cancer in the Netherlands and worldwide, and its incidence is rapidly increasing. One of the main research lines in the Laboratory of experimental Dermatology (LED) studies the relation between the immune system and skin cancer (both melanoma and keratinocyte cancer (non-melanoma skin cancer (BCC, SCC). Due to its high mutational load, skin cancer is a immunogenic cancer, which (in part of the patients) can be effectively treated with immunotherapy. Understanding how the immune system interacts with skin cancer is crucial for improving current cancer immunotherapies. Currently we focus on how the tumor microenvironment affects tumor immunity (for example, if and how hypoxia controls PD-L1 expression in melanoma).