Prof. Eleonora Leucci, PhD, Laboratory for RNA Cancer Biology, KU (Katholieke Universiteit) Leuven, Belgium, and Head of TRACE (KU Leuven PDX platform)
Although still young, Prof. Leucci has established quite a name for herself in the field of noncoding RNAs and cancer. Transcripts and cancer have been the major research themes throughout her career. She got her Ph.D. at the University of Siena, Italy, for studying miRNA function in Burkitt Lymphoma pathogenesis. After continuing for a short time as research assistant in Siena, she did a postdoc at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, again on miRNA, but now in relation to Hodgkin Lymphoma and the expression of the long noncoding (lnc) RNA called MALAT1. Then she did a postdoc at the VIB (Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie) in Leuven, Belgium, where she found that most melanomas specifically express and are actively supported by — even depend on [!] — an lncRNA called SAMMSON, which was published in Nature (Leucci et al. 2016). This Nature paper can probably be considered as the breakthrough moment of her career. She then in 2017 could start her own group, the Laboratory for RNA Cancer Biology, at KU (Katholieke Universiteit) Leuven, and is still running this group to date. The group is researching a variety of cancers, but melanoma research stays important, and among RNAs a major focus of theirs remains on noncoding RNAs. Since that first Nature paper in 2016, Prof. Leucci has kept publishing in top-journals including Nature, Nature Medicine, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Cancer Cell (2x), Nature Genetics, Nature Cancer, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, and Nucleic Acids Research.
Prof. Leucci is not just an RNA specialist but also an expert in patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mouse models (patient tumors can be grown in immunodeficient mice to study their properties), and as Head of Trace PDX Platform at KU Leuven she represents the Belgium branch of EuroPDX. In this function, in Leuven, Prof. Leucci oversees >150 PDX models belonging to ten different types of cancer. The EuroPDX consortium provides some services for—and samples of—PDX models to the international community.
I am very glad and honored that she will give a presentation at Fujita Health University. Not only will we learn about noncoding RNAs in cancer from one of the worldwide experts in this field, but we will also learn about the PDX models in the EuroPDX consortium.
I don’t know her very well, but from a congress I remember her as a kind person with interesting opinions, who somehow seems immune to the competition virus. Her kindness shows by the fact that even previously, when our Seminar Club was smaller and just at the institute level, she had already agreed to give a presentation. When I asked her if she could write something personal about her science for this blog, such as what drives her, she wrote these beautiful sentences:
My Science
(a personal statement about her science by Professor Leucci for this blog; the links were added by me as the Japanese audience may be less familiar with European literature and mythology)
Regarding my science: I see science as a never-ending travel beyond Hercules Pillars, it is what keeps me alive. My favourite quotes are
2017-current Head of TRACE (KU Leuven PDX platform) KU Leuven, Belgium.
2017-current Research professor and independent PI: Laboratory for RNA Cancer Biology,
KULeuven, Belgium:
– LncRNAs in cancer
REVIEWER AND EDITOR FUNCTIONS:
Reviewer for Oncogene, NAR, Nature Cancer, Molecular Cancer, Cell death and disease, PCMR, Cell report, EMBO reports, Trends in Genetics, Nature Review Cancer, Cancer Research, eLife, Nat Comm, and more
Reviewer for INSERM, INCa and Plancancer, ATIP (France), EU, New Zealand cancer society, Israel Science Foundation, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, DGI UDLA (Ecuador), MIUR and AIFA (Italy), Virchow 2.0 (Germany), FWF Austrian Science Fund
Editor of Cell Stress and NcRNA Journal
INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES:
Since 2017 Member of the Council of the Faculty of Medicine.
Since 2017 Member of the Council of the Department of Oncology.
Since 2017 Full member of the EuroPDX consortium
ORGANIZER OF COURSES AND CONFERENCES:
Dec 2020 “Liquid-Liquid phase separation” VIB, Leuven, Belgium.
May 2019 11th European Melanoma Workshop. Otranto (Italy).
May 2016 Leuven (Belgium): “The non-coding Genome”.
HONORS AND GRANTS:
2003-2007 The Ministry of Education, University and Research PhD fellowship.
2008 The Journal of Pathology Jeremy Jass Prize highly commended paper
2009-2012 FSS (The Danish council for independent research) postdoctoral grant.
2. Development of patient-derived tumour xenograft models. Methods Mol Biol. 2019;1862:217-225. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-8769-6_15.
3. Long Noncoding RNA as Novel Cancer Diagnostic and Effective Therapeutic Targets. In Applied RNA Bioscience Springer Nature. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-10-8372-3.
This is a summary of the curriculum vitae (CV) of Dr. Annette Kuehn, Principal Investigator of the Research Group “Molecular & Translational Allergology,” Department of Infection and Immunity, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Luxembourg. She will give a presentation at Fujita Health University.
This is a summary of the curriculum vitae (CV) of Prof. Martin Oudega, Professor of Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences & Neuroscience, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA
. He will give a presentation at Fujita Health University.