THESIS DEFENCE MARIUS WITS

December 8, 2025

Thesis defence: November 20th, 2025 16:00 at the Academiegebouw Leiden

PhD-candidate: Marius Wits

Title: Redirecting TGG-β signaling pathways: Advancing targeting therapy for PAH an FOP.

Thesis Advisor: Prof. Dr. M.J.T.H. Goumans

Co-Thesis Advisor: Dr. G. Sanchez-Duffhues

Groups

Neefjes Lab / Chemical Immunology

Studying the basis of the immune system, bacterial infections and anti-cancer drugs.
Van der Heden & Mulder & Geurink labs / Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery

Profiling the Ubiquitin-Proteasome System
Vertegaal Lab / Small Ubiquitin-like Modifiers

Uncovering signal transduction by SUMO
ten Dijke lab / Chemical Signaling

Cell-to-cell communication via secreted factors, transmembrane receptors and intracellular signal transducers
Szuhai Lab / Molecular tumour genetics

Molecular cytogenetics and functional characterization of bone and soft tissue tumours
Baker lab / Transcriptional Regulation
Lamers Lab / DNA Replication & Repair

Molecular mechanisms of high-fidelity DNA replication
Goncalves & Mikkers Lab / Genome Editing

Developing and integrating gene delivery and gene editing systems
Pang Lab / Functional Genomics

Profiling the non-coding genome
Koster Lab / Electron microscopy research

Cryo Electron Tomography and Artificial Intelligence methods
Hoeben Lab / Virus Cell Interactions

From innate sensing to oncolysis
Meijer Lab / Circadian Clocks

Investigating sleep regulation and sleep function
Goumans Lab / Cardiovascular Cell Biology

Where data science, virus and stem-cell biology is used to understand disease and develop therapeutics.
't Hart & Zaldumbide Lab / Diabetes Research

Molecular mechanisms of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes
Corstjens Lab / Near patient diagnostics

High sensitivity diagnostic tools
Barcena Lab / Cell and structural biology of RNA virus infection
Loeff Lab / Microbial Immunity

Uncovering microbial defense mechanisms through structural and biochemical approaches to reveal immunity principles and enable new biotechnological applications