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Researcher

M.A. (Mathijs) Sanders, PhD

Principal investigator

  • Department
  • Hematology
  • Focus area
  • Acute myeloid leukemia, Myelodysplastic syndromes, Genomics, Single-cell technologies, Bioinformatics, Diagnostics
Contact  
Erasmus MC Department of Hematology

About M.A. (Mathijs) Sanders, PhD

Dr. Mathijs Sanders is a group leader in the department of Hematology. He completed his graduate training in bioinformatics and statistics. Subsequently, he completed a PhD training on the genetic and epigenetic changes linked to myeloid malignancies. In 2016, he joined the Wellcome Sanger Institute to study clonal expansion in healthy and premalignant tissues. Dr Sanders now leads a research group that investigates the mechanisms driving clonal expansion in blood. Additionally, Dr Sanders leads the computational biology research group. Specific focus if put on single cell technologies, spatial multiomics and machine learning.

The Sanders lab investigates the underlying mechanisms of clonal hematopoiesis outgrowth and the impact of an altered tumor microenvironment on hematopoiesis overall and the development of hematological malignancies in particular. Using a combination of single cell technologies, machine learning approaches and novel models we aim to understand how leukemia develops and to what degree the tumor 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 tumor microenvironmental changes on leukaemic development and therapy resistance.
Translation of fundamental insights into better risk stratification, prognostication and treatment management
  • Nov. 2021 – present: Assistant professor, Department of Hematology, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute
  • Jan. 2021 – present: Junior principal investigator, Department of Hematology, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute
  • Sep. 2016 – present: Visiting postdoctoral fellow, Cancer, ageing and somatic mutations, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
  • Feb. 2015 – Dec. 2020: Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Hematology, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute
  • Jan. 2010 – Feb. 2015: PhD hemato-oncology, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute
  • Sep. 2007 – Sep. 2009: MSc. bioinformatics, Technical University Delft
Google Scholar
 2027  Co-director - EHA-ASH Translational Research Training in Hematology co-director
 2025-2026 & 2023  Faculty-mentor - EHA-ASH Translational Research Training in Hematology 
 2023  Faculty-mentor - EHA-EMBL/EBI Computational Biology Training in Hematology
 2022- present  Teacher - Molecular diagnostics in leukemia
 2018-2023  Lecturer - Gene expression data using R

 

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)

Sanders Lab

Comprehensive analyses of preleukemia, myeloid malignancies and acute leukemia using single-cell technologies and computational biology to improve our understanding of disease biology, patient diagnostics and disease outcomes

Related

Departments and research centers

Hematology

Research groups/labs

Sanders Lab