PhD Sanne Landman

Research:

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men. While 5-year survival for patients diagnosed prior to metastasis is nearly 100%, metastatic PCa survival after five years is only 30%. Unfortunately, currently available treatments provide relatively small survival benefits, underscoring a profound unmet need. While understanding the molecular demands of metastatic PCa should enable us to develop improved therapies, identifying relevant druggable targets remains a major challenge. My research focuses on the role deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) play in the disease progression of metastatic prostate cancer. One such DUB called ubiquitin-specific protease 54 (USP54) is highly mutated in patients with metastatic cancer. In this research project we will investigate whether USP54 promotes metastatic behaviour of prostate cancer cells and how cancer-associated mutations alter the activity of USP54.

Curriculum Vitae:

I completed my research master of Life Science & Technology at Leiden University. During this study, I did a major internship under supervision of Maaike Ressing at the LUMC within the group of CCB-VSB on the subject of immune evasion by the EBV. I did my minor internship under supervision of Ilana Berlin in the group of CCB-CI1. Here, I focused on the role of the deubiquitinating enzyme USP54 within cellular systems. From 2017 until 2022 I was a PhD student within both the Hoeben/Ressing and Neefjes/Berlin groups, where I studied the interaction between viruses and host cells. In particular I focused on antiviral immune pathways. In 2023 I joined the Neefjes group as a postdoc working on the role of the deubiquitinase USP54 in metastatic prostate cancer.