Congratulations to Dr. Janneke Peeters who has successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled: “Transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms underlying autoimmune diseases”.
Autoimmune diseases are complex and the various molecular mechanisms that contribute to autoimmune pathogenesis as still poorly understood. The work described in Janneke’s thesis is aimed to create insight into molecular mechanisms underlying autoimmune disease, focusing on epigenetic regulation and autophagy. These studies provide novel insight into transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms in an autoimmune disease setting and demonstrate that altered enhancer regulation and autophagy is associated with autoimmunity. Furthermore, these findings indicate that targeting these molecular mechanisms might be of interest for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.
Janneke will soon be starting a postdoc position at University of California Berkeley with Dr. Michel DuPage where she will be utilizing sophisticated genetic tools to modify T cells and tumor cells in the context of pre-clinical cancer models.