Phd Marius Wits PhD-candidate

Research

Cancer remains the second leading cause of death globally, despite advancements in anti-cancer therapies. Current clinical strategies often rely on non-specific treatments, which frequently result in significant side effects. Tumor malignancy poses the greatest threat to patient survival, yet conventional therapies primarily focus on inhibiting proliferation, suppressing angiogenesis, or inducing apoptosis. Consequently, the mechanisms underlying cell invasion and metastasis are often overlooked. Therefore, I am interested in developing novel cell-specific therapeutics targeting cytoskeletal regulators to inhibit the cancer’s malignant properties (e.g., invasion and metastasis). In collaboration with PROSION, Cologne, we base these therapeutic approaches on previously established unique small molecules targeting actin filament enhancers including ENA/VASP family members. The aim is to enhance these molecules by combining protein degradation technologies and cancer cell-specific targeting approaches. In conclusion, my work focuses on advancing the state-of-the-art anti-cancer therapeutics by implementing targeted protein degradation and ProM-based small molecules in a cell-specific manner.

Curriculum Vitae

After my bachelor’s Biology (2013-2018) and master’s Biomedical Sciences (2018-2020) at Utrecht University (UU), I pursued my PhD studies under the supervision of Prof. Marie-José Goumans and Dr. Gonzalo Sanchez-Duffhues at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) (2020-2024). In this work, I studied dysregulated signal transduction in the two rare genetic diseases Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva and Pulmonary arterial hypertension. As such, I developed a novel molecular model to assess TGF-β specific small molecule kinase inhibitors and contributed to important translatable biological findings in these diseases. Further, I obtained a mobility fellowship to investigate one of our therapeutic leads in vivo under the guidance of Prof. Francesc Ventura at the University of Barcelona (UB). Currently, as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Peter ten Dijke, I study novel anti-cancer therapeutics.