June 2022 – Monthly portrait of a young researcher
Simone Bendix Maarup, PhD Student, MD
Simone Bendix Maarup an MD, graduating from Copenhagen University 2013 and currently a PhD student at the DCCC Brain Tumor Center, Copenhagen University Hospital working on T-cell expansion after immune therapy for recurrent Glioblastoma.
Research areas
- T-cell reactivity
- Tumor microenvironment
- Immune therapy
- Omnics
Simone states “Results from our clinical trial CA9UP-209 of recurrent Glioblastoma patients treated with preoperative Nivolumab followed by Nivolumab and Bevacizumab where presented. My main time have been in the laboratory expanding T-cells in different milieus to investigate the T-cell aggressiveness towards autologous and allogenic tumor cells. The expansion has been done at Center for Cancer Immune Therapy, CCIT under Professor Inge Marie Svane.
In a large collaboration with Professor Sine Reker Hadrup’s group, Experimental and Translational Immunology, we have looked upon the T-cell phenotype and predicted neoepitope from genomic data, to perform barcoding upon the MuPeXi model.
The project has other collaborators investigating the patients’ contributions; Professor Julia Johansen and Resident Camilla Bjørnbak Holst (YKL-40 and Olink-panel on serum samples), Nordic Bioscience (collagen in serum), Professor Mathias Mann and Jr. group leader Filip Mundt at the Proteincenter, Copenhagen University (proteomics), Professor Bjarne Winther Kristensen (GeoxMx, Tumor microenvironment), and Professor Joachim Weischenfeldt (scRNA and genomics)” ,Chief Physician, CO- Director, the DCCC Brain Tumor Center Hans Skovgaard Poulsen
Simone Bendix Maarup is handing in her PhD thesis September 2022 and presenting the latest results as an oral presentation at the EANO 2022 conference in Vienna.
Simone Bendix Maarup’s PhD supervisors are as follows; Chief Physician Benedikte Hasselbalch, Professor Ulrik Lassen, Professor Inge Marie Svane and Professor Sine Reker Hadrup.
Simone’s research focus
- Impact from the immune system and tumor microenvironment on Glioblastoma