Welcome to the Peeper lab website

Welcome to the website of the Peeper laboratory at NKI Amsterdam. Our objective is to dissect essential cancer cell signaling networks and identify novel targets for therapeutic intervention. To achieve this, we are asking several questions: Are there intrinsic cellular mechanisms protecting us against cancer? Can we exploit those clinically? How can we best dissect tumor-suppressing genetic networks? How can we effectively identify essential cancer genes, which may serve as novel drug targets? Can we use our laboratory results to make a difference in the clinic, for example by finding ways to augment the therapeutic window of cancer therapeutics?

In a nutshell, these are the fundamental as well as clinically relevant questions that we are taking up in our laboratory. To achieve this, we are combine advanced techniques, including screens with 100.000-vector shRNA libraries and next-generation sequencing, with classical biochemical and genetic approaches.

Highlights include our discoveries that a genomic screen for anoikis resistance can be used to identify metastasis genes (Nature 2004); that Oncogene-Induced cellular Senescence (OIS) serves as a potent tumor suppressor mechanism limiting cancer progression (Nature 2005; New Engl J Med 2006); the identification of several OIS-associated oncogenes (Nat Cell Biol. 2005; Nat Rev Cancer 2006); and that OIS is associated with the activation of an inflammatory transcriptome (Cell 2008; Nat Rev Cancer 2009; Genes Dev 2010). Recently, we identified a prognostic breast cancer genetic signature and a factor essential to drive metastasis.

Currently, we are shifting towards more translational research, in that we are setting out to identify novel therapeutic targets for melanoma and breast cancer, in the context of cell-based and in-vivo genomic screens. For more information about ongoing research, click here.

Daniel Peeper is a group leader in the Division of Molecular Genetics at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. He is also an affiliate professor in Functional Oncogenomics at the VU University medical center (VUmc) Amsterdam. He received the 2007 Junior Researcher award from the Society for Melanoma Research, a Queen Wilhelmina Award (2 million €) from the Dutch Cancer Society in 2009 (see below), he was elected as EMBO YIP member in 2005 and as EMBO member three years later.

In addition to updating you about the ongoing research in the Peeper lab, this website contains information about the researchers involved, our publications, vacancies and contact and travel information.

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