Lab members
Merel Jongmans
PhD Student
Merel is a PhD student at the UMC Utrecht and the Princess Máxima Center. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Natural Sciences from the VU University Amsterdam in 2022. She then pursued a master’s degree in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology at VU and the University of Amsterdam (UvA). During her master’s studies, Merel worked on distinguishing esophageal squamous cell carcinoma from esophageal adenocarcinoma based on the joint signal between genomics and transcriptomics (Translational Cancer Genomics, Erasmus MC). Subsequently, she focused on identifying molecular immune subtypes of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (Early Translational Data Science, Genmab). These experiences further inspired her in applying machine learning algorithms to cancer research, ultimately guiding her current focus: using DNA methylation to predict tumor subtypes in both solid tumors and lymphomas.