Guido Jenster PhD

 

 

Guido Jenster PhD

Guido Jenster PhD

Professor Experimental Urological Oncology

 

Josephine Nefkens Institute, Room Be362a
Erasmus MC
P.O. box 2040,
3000 CA Rotterdam,

The Netherlands

phone: +31-10-704-3672

e-mail: g.jenster@erasmusmc.nl

 

Research interests

Support and involvement in consortium projects

Curriculum Vitae

Dissertations

Alumni

Publications

 

Research interest
The aim of my research is to unravel the mechanisms of the origin and progression of prostate cancer and identify new biomarkers and therapy leads for urological cancers. We focus on the role of extracellular vesicles, fusion genes, long noncoding RNAs, circRNAs and development of nanobodies against cancer.

Long noncoding and circRNAs as biomarkers and functional transcripts in prostate cancer
The largest and most diverse groups of RNAs include the linear and circular long noncoding RNAs. With 50,000 – 160,000 different species that do not encode for proteins, their function is poorly understood. From RNA-seq data we identified PCa-associated transcripts and explore their role in PCa initiation and progression.

(Fusion) genes and pathways responsible for prostate cancer initiation and progression
Gene rearrangements are common driver event in PCa. Particularly the TMPRSS2-ERG fusion and AR amplification and AR variant expression are frequently observed. However, also rare and private driver gene mutations are identified from Next Generation sequencing data. The role of these genes and pathways is being studied with respect to the different cancer hallmarks.

Novel nanobodies against cancer
Antibodies are an essential tool for diagnosis, imaging and treatment of cancer. Surprisingly, very few cancer-specific antibodies are available and we have developed a unique pipeline to select small antibodies (nanobodies) that recognize a specific (cancer) cell type. Generating unique nanobodies against urological cancers will provide novel tools to diagnose and treat disease.

Extracellular vesicles (exosomes) as biomarker treasure chests and their function and therapeutic applications in prostate cancer
All cells secrete small extracellular vesicles (EVs) that contain RNA, metabolites and protein from their host. From the number and content of plasma and urine EVs, the presence of disease can be determined. Besides their biomarker potential, the role of EVs in cancer progression and their use as therapeutic agents is being explored. Various unique technologies such as EVQuant and TR-FIA (licensed as TRIFic, CellGS) have been developed to quantify and characterize EVs from biofluids.

The Urinome Project: collaborative initiative to integrate urinary biomarker research for all urogenital diseases
Within the Urology discipline, urine is the most important biofluid for disease diagnostics. Urine biomarker research is conducted and implemented for a wide range of abnormalities of the kidneys, prostate and bladder, whether transplantation, infection, stones, cancer or any other disease. Within large collaborative consortia, we join forces to integrate urine-based diagnostics on various levels including urine cells, EVs, RNA, free DNA and protein.

Bioinformatics and cancer model systems
To process and integrate data and identify novel genomic and proteomics mutations, we develop new software algorithms. Tools such as iFUSE, FLAIMapper, FuMa and Dr Disco support our research on gene fusions and noncoding RNA. Artificial intelligence on nanobody databases is developed in collaboration with TU-Delft to identify unique nanobodies against cancer.
In order to reproduce the progression of PCa in patients, we constantly develop new model systems including tissue slices, patient-derived xenografts, 2D and organoid systems and therapy-resistant cell lines. Recently, we generated PCa cell lines that are color-coded and genetically barcoded to unravel the process of metastasis in mice and in vitro.

 

Involvement in consortium projects (>€500,000)

  • PRIMA: Prostate cancer integral management approach; EU-FP6 (2003-2008)
  • Nuclear receptors in targeted cancer therapy: improved methods for candidate   selection. Top Institute Pharma (2007-2011)
  • CANCURE: Marie Curie Initial Training Network (2006-2010)
  • ProspeR: Prostate cancer: profiling and evaluation of ncRNA; EU-FP7 (2008-2011)
  • PRO-NEST: Prostate Research Organizations-Network of Early Stage Training. Marie Curie Initial Training Network (2009-2013)
  • PCMM: Prostate Cancer Molecular Medicine. Center for Translational Molecular Medicine (2009-2015)
  • TraIT: Translational IT. Center for Translational Molecular Medicine (2011-2015)
  • Movember GAP1 Exosomes (2012-2014)
  • PREDECT: New Models for Preclinical Evaluation of Drug Efficacy in Common Solid Tumors. EU-IMI-EFPIA (2011-2016)
  • NGS-ProToCol: Next Generation Sequencing from Prostate to Colorectal Cancer. -Center for Translational Molecular Medicine (2014-2015)
  • Erasmus MC CCBC: Erasmus MC Cancer Computational Biology Center. Daniel den Hoed Foundation (2014-2020)
  • Cancer-ID: STW-Perspectief: New Technology for monitoring Cancer therapy through extracellular vesicle Identity (2015-2018)
  • CTSF: Erasmus MC Cancer Therapy Screening Facility. Daniel den Hoed Foundation (2015-2020)
  • IMMPROVE: KWF-Alpe d’HuZes: Innovative measurements and markers for prostate cancer diagnosis and prognosis using extracellular vesicles (2016- 2020)
  • EffiBody: Eurostars: Development of a new platform technology for efficient, fast and cost-effective antibody generation (2016-2019)
  • The Urinome Project: RNA and DNA sequencing of urine from men, women and children with various diseases of the urogenital tract (2016-2020)
  • PROSCANEXO: TRANSCAN2: Exploitation of extracellular vesicles for precision diagnostics of prostate cancer (2018-2020)
  • proEVLifeCycle: The life cycle of extracellular vesicles in cancer: from biogenesis and homing to functional relevance Marie Curie Initial Training Network (2019-2023)
  • BlCaNbs: Detecting and Destroying Urothelial Cell Carcinoma using cancer- specific nanobodies (2021-2024)

 

Curriculum Vitae

  • 1983-1989: Agricultural University Wageningen, The Netherlands.
  • 1990-1994: PhD degree: Department of Endocrinology & Reproduction, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Dissertation: Functional Domains of the Human Androgen Receptor.

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.A. Grootegoed, co-promotors: Dr. A.O. Brinkmann and Prof.dr. ir. J. Trapman.

  • 1994-1997: Post-doctoral Associate: Department of Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA. Laboratory of Dr. Ming-Jer Tsai and Dr. Sophia Tsai under supervision of Dr. Bert W. O’Malley:
  • 1997-1999: Assistant Geneticist and Assistant Professor of Urology Department of Urology and Department of Genetics, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas, Urologic Oncology Research Laboratory, Houston, Texas, USA.
  • 1999-2006: Assistant Professor of Urology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  • 2006-2012: Associate Professor of Urology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  • 2012-current: Professor of Experimental Urological Oncology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

 

Dissertations

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/16614

– Rute Marques
The Role of the Androgen Receptor Pathway in Prostate Cancer Progression (2009)

 

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/15288

– Leonie van der Heul-Nieuwenhuijsen
Cancer related gene expression in the human prostate zones (2009)

 

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/17785

– Dennis van de Wijngaart
Peptides and proteins interacting with the androgen receptor (2009)

 

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/10866

– Rob Jelier
Text Mining applied to Molecular Biology (2008)

 

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/10549

– Lennard Dekker
Proteomics of body fluids (2007)

 

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/51766

– Delila Gasi Tanderfelt
Expression and Function of ETS genes in Prostate Cancer (2013)

 

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/41339

– Flip H. Jansen
Discovery and Validation of Prostate Cancer Biomarkers (2013)

 

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/78528

– Ines Teles Alves
Characterization of Novel Genetic Alterations in Prostate Cancer (2015)

 

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/79459

– Robert J. van Soest
Taxanes and Novel Androgen Receptor Targeted Agents in the Management of Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer (2015)

 

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/78928

– A. Marije Hoogland
Discovery and Validation of Prognostic Tissue Markers in Clinical Prostate Cancer (2015)

 

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/94115

– Rene Böttcher
Identification of Novel Prostate Cancer Biomarkers Using High-throughput Technologies (2016)

 

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/100859

– Giovanny Rodriguez Blanco
The Arachidonic Acid Pathway: a potential application in the diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer (2017)

 

Hyperlink: https://repub.eur.nl/pub/113956

– Youri Hoogstrate
Molecular and Computational Transcriptomics in Prostate Cancer (2019)

 

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/115842

– Diederick Duijvesz
Extracellular Vesicles as Biomarkers for Prostate Cancer (2019)

 

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/135607

– Lisanne van Dessel
Unravelling the Genomic Landscape of Metastatic Prostate Cancer: A prospect on Patient Stratification using blood-based biomarkers (2021)

 

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/136978

– Saskia Hiltemann
Jigsaw Genomics: Assembling the pieces towards open and accessible bioinformatics for everyone (2021)

 

Alumni

2001-2008       Dennis van de Wijngaart (PhD student)
2002-2005       Antoine Veldhoven (Bioinformatician)
2002                 Nazmoen Mahmood (BSc student)
2002-2005       Peter Hendriksen (Postdoc)
2002-2006       Rute Marques (PhD student)
2002-2007       Leonie van der Heul-Nieuwenhuijsen (PhD student)
2003                 Thao van Nguyen (MSc student)
2004-2006       Gert Jan van der Bemd (Postdoc)
2004-2008       Don de Lange (BSc bioinformatics student and
                          Bioinformatician)
2005                 Sheyde Ojaghi (BSc bioinformatics student)
2005                 Désirée Peters (BSc bioinformatics student)
2005-2008       Flip Jansen (PhD student)
2006                 Armina Malchasian (Medical student)
2006                 William van den Berge (BSc student)
2006-2008       Angelique van Rijswijk (Research Assistant)
2007                 Ruta Keflom (BSc student)
2007                 Farshid Arasteh Samani (BSc student bioinformatics)
2007                 Mirella van den Berg (BSc student)
2007-2008       Matthijs Moll (MSc student)
2008                 Lilly David (BSc student bioinformatics)
2008                 Anouk Heine (BSc student bioinformatics))
2008                 Tessa Dorival (BSc student bioinformatics)
2008                 Barry van der Mast (BSc student bioinformatics)
2008-2009       Christos Chelonas (MSc student)
2009                 Eurydice Martine (BSc student)
2009                 Zhian Mahmoud (BSc student)
2009-2010        Bas Pigmans (BSc student bioinformatics)
2006-2009       Rajesh Sookhlall (Research Assistant)
2009-2010        Sanaz Yahyanejad (MSc student)
2010                  Stefan Roobol (MSc student)
2010-2011         Anton Kalsbeek (MSc student)
2010-2011         David Cano Rodriguez (MSc student)
2010-2011         Hatice Acar (BSc student)
2010-2011         Nilab Naimi (BSc student)
2011-2012         Youri Hoogstrate (Bioinformatician)
2011-2012         Martijn van der Schoor (BSc student bioinformatics)
2011-2012         Michael Olvedy (MSc)
2011-2012         Fedde Schaeffer (BSc student bioinformatics)
2012                  Ricardo Vos (BSc student)
2011-2012         Jos van Nijnatten (BSc student)
2012-2013        Thomas Hartjes (MSc student)
2012-2013        Lizzy van den Berg (Assistant)
2012-2013        Nikolas Strepis (MSc student)
2008-2011        Diederick Duijvesz (PhD student)
2011-2014         Yin Versluis (PhD student)
2012-2013         Chris van der Lans (BSc student bioinformatics)
2013                  Maartje van ’t Hof (MSc Medical student)
2013                  Vincent Roodzant (B AS student)
2013-2014         Christa van der Fels (MSc Medical student)
2013-2014         Piotr Maciej Waranecki (B AS student and Research Assistant)
2013-2014         Wubalem Desta Seifu ((MSc student)
2009-2014        Inês Teles Alves (PhD student)
2010-2014         Giovanny Alejandro Rodriguez Blanco (PhD student)
2014                  Charlotte Stokkermans (BSc student)
2012-2014         Robert van Soest (PhD student)
2012-2014         Suzana Vidic (Postdoc)
2014-2015         Wendy Plugge (MSc student)
2012-2015         René Böttcher (PhD student bioinformatics)
2014-2015         Matthijs Bekkers (MSc student)
2014-2015         Mónica Vara Pérez (MSc student)
2014-2015         David Nieuwenhuijse    (MSc student and bioinformatician)
2015-2016         Petra van Duijn (Postdoc)
2012-2016         Matthijs Moll (PhD student)
2011-2017          Hanneke van Zoggel (Postdoc)
2015-2016         Mathijs Scholtes (MSc student)
2015-2017         Minh Bao Huynh (Postdoc)
2016                  Caitlin Jenster (Student and Volunteer)
2011-2015         Giovanny Rodriguez Blanco (PhD student)
2016                  Stefania Crucitta (Visiting PhD student; University Pisa)
2016                  Jason Webber (Visiting scientist; Cardiff University)
2016-2017         Janne Leivo (Visiting Scientist; University Turku)
2017-2018         Jim Grey (Visiting scientist; Newcastle University)
2017-2018         Maarten Ligtenberg (MSc student)
2013-2018         Rute Marques   (Senior Postdoc)
2017-2018         Jeroen van Dorp (MSc student)
2018                  Stefania Crucitta (Visiting PhD student; University Pisa)
2018-2019         Tanja van de Nadort (MSc student)
2018-2019         Nea Bister (Visiting PhD student; University of Eastern Finland)
2019-2019         Alba Martin Barreiro (Visiting PhD student; CIBER-BBN, Spain)
2019-2020        Erlantz Gonzalez (MSc student)
2019-2020        Bram Kouwenhoven (MSc student)
2019-2020        Tanja van Dijk (MSc student)

 

Publications

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=jenster+g&sort=pubdate

Key Publications:

  • Erdbrügger U et al., Urinary extracellular vesicles: A position paper by the Urine Task Force of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles. J Extracell Vesicles. 2021 May;10(7):e12093.
  • Chen S et al., Widespread and Functional RNA Circularization in Localized Prostate Cancer. 2019 Feb 7;176(4):831-843.e22.
  • Schumacher FR et al., Association analyses of more than 140,000 men identify 63 new prostate cancer susceptibility loci. Nat Genet. 2018 Jul;50(7):928-936.
  • Del Re M, Biasco E, Crucitta S, Derosa L, Rofi E, Orlandini C, Miccoli M, Galli L, Falcone A, Jenster GW, van Schaik RH, Danesi R. The Detection of Androgen Receptor Splice Variant 7 in Plasma-derived Exosomal RNA Strongly Predicts Resistance to Hormonal Therapy in Metastatic Prostate Cancer Patients. Eur Urol. 2017 Apr;71(4):680-687.
  • Hiltemann S, Jenster G, Trapman J, van der Spek P, Stubbs A. Discriminating somatic and germline mutations in tumor DNA samples without matching normals. Genome Res. 2015 Sep;25(9):1382-90.
  • Teles Alves I, Hartjes T, McClellan E, Hiltemann S, Böttcher R, Dits N. Temanni MR, Janssen B, van Workum W, van der Spek P, Stubbs A, de Klein A, Eussen B, Trapman J, Jenster G. Next-generation sequencing reveals novel rare fusion events with functional implication in prostate cancer. Oncogene. 2015 Jan 29;34(5):568-77.
  • Martens-Uzunova ES, Jalava SE, Dits NF, van Leenders GJ, Møller S, Trapman J, Bangma CH, Litman T, Visakorpi T, Jenster G. Diagnostic and prognostic signatures from the small non-coding RNA transcriptome in prostate cancer. 2012 Feb 23;31(8):978-91
  • van de Wijngaart DJ, Molier M, Lusher SJ, Hersmus R, Jenster G, Trapman J, Dubbink HJ. Systematic structure-function analysis of androgen receptor Leu701 mutants explains the properties of the prostate cancer mutant L701H. J Biol Chem. 2010 Feb 12;285(7):5097-105.
  • Jansen FH, Krijgsveld J, van Rijswijk A, van den Bemd GJ, van den Berg MS, van Weerden WM, Willemsen R, Dekker LJ, Luider TM, Jenster G. Exosomal secretion of cytoplasmic prostate cancer xenograft-derived proteins. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2009 Jun;8(6):1192-205.
  • Hermans KG, van Marion R, van Dekken H, Jenster G, van Weerden WM, Trapman J. TMPRSS2:ERG fusion by translocation or interstitial deletion is highly relevant in androgen-dependent prostate cancer, but is bypassed in late-stage androgen receptor-negative prostate cancer. Cancer Res. 66(22):10658-10663 (2006)
  • Hendriksen PJ, Dits NF, Kokame K, Veldhoven A, van Weerden WM, Bangma CH, Trapman J, Jenster G. Evolution of the androgen receptor pathway during progression of prostate cancer. Cancer Res. 66(10):5012-5020 (2006)
  • Jenster, T.E. Spencer, M.M. Burcin, S.Y. Tsai, M-J. Tsai and B.W. O’Malley. Steroid receptor induction of gene transcription: a two-step model. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94: 7879-7884 (1997).
  • E. Spencer, G. Jenster, M.M. Burcin, C.D. Allis, J. Zhou, S.Y., C.A. Mizzen, N.J. McKenna, S.A. Onate, S.Y. Tsai, M-J. Tsai and B.W. O’Malley. Steroid receptor coactivator one is a histone acetyltransferase. Nature 389: 194-198 (1997).
  • Nora Heisterkamp, Guido Jenster, Joanne ten Hoeve, Daniel Zovich, Paul K. Pattengale and John Groffen. Acute leukaemia in bcr/abl transgenic mice. Nature 344: 251-253 (1990).