The presence of tumoral heterogeneity in time and space challenges the implementation of omics technologies for precision oncology. Therefore, there is an emerging interest in the development and application of tools that allow detection and monitoring of intra-tumoral, spatial and temporal heterogeneity in cancer patients. The past years my team has gained renowned expertise in this field by analysing nucleic acids in liquid biopsy samples that can capture the intratumoral/spatial heterogeneity at a certain time point, but also allows analysis of temporal heterogeneity via longitudinal sampling of biofluids during the patient’s treatment. In addition, during the past years we have obtained expertise in single-cell/nucleus sequencing that provides an unprecedented view on the heterogeneity in complex tissues like tumors and blood samples.

For the coming 4 years, the overarching research aim of the lab is the development of analytical and bio-informatic omics pipelines that allow mapping of the (epi)genetic tumoral and micro-environmental heterogeneity, further aiding cancer diagnosis, therapy response prediction and tumor monitoring enabling a more precise clinical management of cancer patients. To this end, we apply multi-ome single-cell/nucleus sequencing on blood and tumor tissue samples. In addition, we will gain more fundamental understanding in the release of nucleic acids in the bloodstream and in other biofluids, which will aid in uncovering the full potential of (epi)genetic analysis of different biofluids for an improved cancer patient management.