About our research group/lab
The Sanders lab investigates the underlying mechanisms of clonal haematopoiesis outgrowth and the impact of an altered tumour microenvironment on haematopoiesis overall and the development of haematological malignancies in particular. Using a combination of single cell technologies, machine learning approaches and novel models we aim to understand how leukaemia develops and to what degree the tumour microenvironment contributes to the disease biology.
Key interests are:
- Drivers of clonal expansion and their health consequences
- Characteristic patterns of cancer evolution
- The impact of tumour microenvironmental changes on leukaemic development and therapy resistance.
- Translation of fundamental insights into better risk stratification, prognostication and treatment management
Myeloid malignancies and their tumor microenvironment
Using single-cell and spatial technologies we investigate what alterations are wrought cell-intrinsically and upon the tumor microenvironment and vice versa.
Clonal outgrowth in disease
Aging is marked by the outgrowth of clones in blood system as well as other human tissues. Using low-input and single-cell methodologies we determine the mutation landscape underlying clonal outgrowth and what transcriptional and epigenetic changes occur on a single-cell level.
Novel methodologies in diagnostics
We build novel methodologies for acute leukemia diagnostics. For instance, we have developed a suite of tools that help determining the presence of molecular residual disease at minimal detectable levels. In addition, we have developed tools for performing diagnostics using RNA-seq data.* shared first author † shared last author
Webster, A. L. H.*, Mathijs Sanders*, Patel K., Dietrich R., Noonan R. J., Lach, F. P., White, R. R., Goldfarb, A., Hadi, K., Edwards, M. M., Donovan, F. X., Hoogenboezem, R. M., Jung, M., Sridhar, S., Wiley, T. F., Fedrigo, O., Tian, H., Rosiene, J., Heineman, T., Kennedy, J. A., Bean, L., Rosti, R. O., Tryon, R., Gonzalez, A., Rosenberg, A., Luo, J., Carrol, T., Shroff, S., Beaumont, M., Velleuer, E., Rastatter, J. C., Wells, S. I., Surrallés, J., Bagby, G., MacMillan, M. L., Wagner, J. E., Cancio, M., Boulad, F., Scognamiglio, T., Vaughan R., Beaumont, K. G., Koren, A., Imielinski, M., Chandrasekharappa, S. C., Auerbach, A. D., Singh, B., Kutler, D. I., Campbell, P. J. & Smogorzewska, A. Genomic signature of Fanconi anemia DNA repair pathway deficiency in cancer. Nature 2022 Dec;612(7940):495-502
Groschel, S.*, Mathijs Sanders*, Hoogenboezem, R., de Wit, E., Bouwman, B. A. M., Erpelinck, C., van der Velden, V. H. J., Havermans, M., Avellino, R., van Lom, K., Rombouts, E. J., van Duin, M., Dohner, K., Beverloo, H. B., Bradner, J. E., Dohner, H., Lowenberg, B., Valk, P. J. M., Bindels, E. M. J., de Laat, W. & Delwel, R. A single oncogenic enhancer rearrangement causes concomitant EVI1 and GATA2 deregulation in leukemia. Cell 2014 Apr 10;157(2):369-381.
Tovy, A., Reyes, J. M., Gundry, M. C., Brunetti, L., Lee-Six, H., Petljak, M., Park, H. J., Guzman, A. G., Rosas, C., Jeffries, A. R., Baple, E., Mill, J., Crosby, A. H., Sency, V., Xin, B., Machado, H. E., Castillo, D., Weitzel, J. N., Li, W., Stratton, M. R., Campbell, P. J., Wang, H., Mathijs Sanders† & Goodell, M. A.† Tissue-Biased Expansion of DNMT3A-Mutant Clones in a Mosaic Individual Is Associated with Conserved Epigenetic Erosion. Cell Stem Cell 2020 Aug 6;27(2):326-335.e4.
Mathijs Sanders*, Chew, E.*, Flensburg, C., Zeilemaker, A., Miller, S. E., Al Hinai, A. S., Bajel, A., Luiken, B., Rijken, M., McLennan, T., Hoogenboezem, R. M., Kavelaars, F. G., Frohling, S., Blewitt, M. E., Bindels, E. M., Alexander, W. S., Lowenberg, B., Roberts, A. W., Valk, P. J. M. & Majewski, I. J. MBD4 guards against methylation damage and germ line deficiency predisposes to clonal hematopoiesis and early-onset AML. Blood 2018 Oct 4;132(14):1526-1534.
Grob T., Mathijs Sanders, Vonk C.M., Kavelaars F.G., Rijken M., Hanekamp D.W., Gradowska P.L., Cloos J., Fløisand Y., van Marwijk Kooy M., Manz M.G., Ossenkoppele G.J., Tick L.W., Havelange V., Löwenberg B., Jongen-Lavrencic M., Valk P.J.M. Prognostic Value of FLT3-Internal Tandem Duplication Residual Disease in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Journal of Clinical Oncology 2023 Feb 1;41(4):756-765.
Jongen-Lavrencic, M., Grob, T., Hanekamp, D., Kavelaars, F. G., Al Hinai, A., Zeilemaker, A., Erpelinck- Verschueren, C. A. J., Gradowska, P. L., Meijer, R., Cloos, J., Biemond, B. J., Graux, C., van Marwijk Kooy, M., Manz, M. G., Pabst, T., Passweg, J. R., Havelange, V., Ossenkoppele, G. J., Mathijs Sanders, Schuurhuis, G. J.†, Lowenberg, B.† & Valk, P. J. M.† Molecular Minimal Residual Disease in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. N Engl J Med 2018 Mar 29;378(13):1189-1199.
Ellis, P.*, Moore, L.*, Mathijs Sanders*, Butler, T. M.*, Brunner, S. F., Lee-Six, H., Osborne, R., Farr, B., Coorens, T. H. H., Lawson, A. R. J., Cagan, A., Stratton, M. R., Martincorena, I. & Campbell, P. J. Reliable detection of somatic mutations in solid tissues by laser-capture microdissection and low-input DNA sequencing. Nat Protoc 2021 Feb;16(2):841-871.
Chudasama, P.*, Mughal, S. S.*, Mathijs Sanders*, Hubschmann, D.*, Chung, I., Deeg, K. I., Wong, S. H., Rabe, S., Hlevnjak, M., Zapatka, M., Ernst, A., Kleinheinz, K., Schlesner, M., Sieverling, L., Klink, B., Schrock, E., Hoogenboezem, R. M., Kasper, B., Heilig, C. E., Egerer, G., Wolf, S., von Kalle, C., Eils, R., Stenzinger, A., Weichert, W., Glimm, H., Groschel, S., Kopp, H. G., Omlor, G., Lehner, B., Bauer, S., Schimmack, S., Ulrich, A., Mechtersheimer, G., Rippe, K., Brors, B., Hutter, B., Renner, M., Hohenberger, P., Scholl, C. & Frohling, S. Integrative genomic and transcriptomic analysis of leiomyosarcoma. Nat Commun 2018 Jan 10;9(1):144. Moore, L., Leongamornlert, D., Coorens, T. H. H., Mathijs Sanders, Ellis, P., Dentro, S. C., Dawson, K. J., Butler, T., Rahbari, R., Mitchell, T. J., Maura, F., Nangalia, J., Tarpey, P. S., Brunner, S. F., Lee-Six, H., Hooks, Y., Moody, S., Mahbubani, K. T., Jimenez-Linan, M., Brosens, J. J., Iacobuzio-Donahue, C. A., Martincorena, I., Saeb-Parsy, K., Campbell, P. J. & Stratton, M. R. The mutational landscape of normal human endometrial epithelium. Nature 2020 Apr;580(7805):640-646.
2025-2029 NWO Mosaic grant 2.0 (Principal Investigator)
2024-2027 EHA Advanced Research Grant (Principal Investigator)
2024-2029 Landsteiner Foundation for blood research (Principal Investigator)
2024-2025 Erasmus MC Innovation Grant (Principal Investigator)
2021-2026 KWF Young Investigator Grant (Principal Investigator)
2016-2018 Rubicon Fellowship (Project Leader)
