Amelie Franken

Amelie Franken is a second year PhD student working in Prof. Diether Lambrechts’ Laboratory of Translational Genetics (VIB CCB). After completing her secondary education in Bree, Limburg, she started a Bachelor in Biomedical Sciences at the KU Leuven. Her dedication earned her a research internship at the University of Barcelona, where her fields of interest further crystallized. She wanted to contribute to the field of oncology, and was equally captivated by the complexity of immunology; two disciplines which go hand in hand. Over the course of her Master’s in Biomedical Sciences at the KU Leuven, she gained expertise in several labs and wrote her Master’s thesis about therapy resistance in melanoma, using multiplex immunohistochemistry, under the joint supervision of Profs. Jean-Christophe Marine (VIB CCB) and Genevieve Boland (Massachusetts General Hospital – Harvard). After this insightful wet-lab experience, she broadened her skill set and switched to big data analysis. Today, she’s using novel single-cell computational techniques to uncover mechanisms of response or intrinsic resistance to cancer immunotherapy. Her main project focuses on head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, as part of the VIB Grand Challenges program.