Two prestigious European grants awarded to Clemens van Blitterswijk and Philippe Lambin
Two professors from UM/Maastricht UMC+ have each been awarded the most prestigious European research grant for individual researchers: an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant worth more than €2.5 million. They will go to distinguished university professor Clemens van Blitterswijk (MERLN) and Prof Philippe Lambin (MAASTRO Clinic).
Van Blitterswijk will lead a research project to develop new tissues based on the intrinsic self-organising capacity of cells, including stem cells. The project will include developing new cell culture platforms and investigating the mechanism of self-organisation. This knowledge will then be applied in a lab setting and used to develop in vitro models of pancreatic islets, a pituitary gland and a mouse blastocyst.
Lambin and his team will investigate an innovative treatment method for patients with metastatic lung cancer. This new treatment method is based on a combination of immunotherapy, radiotherapy and an innovative drug. Patients suffering from complex forms of metastatic lung cancer could especially benefit from the new development. The new therapy works as follows: the radiotherapy destroys tumour cells in the primary tumour in the lungs. The destruction of the tumour cells activates the immune system, which in turn can destroy the metastatic tumour cells in the rest of the body.
The European Research Council awards the Advanced Grants to established, leading principal researchers who are doing very innovative, groundbreaking research.