Sanders Lab

Drivers of clonal haematopoiesis and AML

Mathijs (M.A.) Sanders

E-mail: m.sanders@erasmusmc.nl

X: @MathijsSanders

Scopus: link

PubMed: link

LinkedIn: link

Contact:

Tessa Mannee, secretary, t.mannee@erasmusmc.nl

Dr Mathijs Sanders is a group leader in the department of Hematology, Erasmus MC Cancer institute, the Netherlands. He completed his graduate training in bioinformatics and statistics at the Delft University of Technology in 2009. Subsequently, he completed a PhD training at the Erasmus MC Cancer Institute under the supervision of professors Ruud Delwel and Bob Löwenberg on the genetic and epigenetic changes linked to myeloid malignancies in 2015. In 2016, he joined the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation program at the Wellcome Sanger Institute under the supervision of Dr Peter Campbell to study clonal expansion in healthy and premalignant tissues in the setting of DNA repair deficiencies. Since 2021, Dr Sanders leads a research group at the Erasmus MC Cancer Institute that investigates the mechanisms driving clonal expansion in blood and other human tissues. In addition, Dr Sanders leads the computational biology research group active in the department of Hematology. Specific focus if put on single cell technologies, spatial multiomics and machine learning.


Our research

The Sanders lab investigates the underlying mechanisms of clonal haematopoiesis outgrowth and the impact of an altered tumour microenvironment on haematopoiesis overall and the development of haematological malignancies in particular. Using a combination of single cell technologies, machine learning approaches and novel models we aim to understand how leukaemia develops and to what degree the tumour microenvironment contributes to the disease biology.

 

Key interests are:

 

  • Drivers of clonal expansion and their health consequences
  • Characteristic patterns of cancer evolution
  • The impact of tumour microenvironmental changes on leukaemic development and therapy resistance.
  • Translation of fundamental insights into better risk stratification, prognostication and treatment management

Our team

Mathijs Sanders, principal investigator

Dennis Bosch, research technician

Gregory van Beek, research associate

Remco Hoogenboezem, research associate

Jolinda Konijnenburg, research associate

Elodie Stoetman, research associate

Roger Mulet Lazaro, postdoc

Sanne Massaar, PhD student

Alumni

Jasmijn Erpelinck


Key publications

* shared first author † shared last author

 

Webster, A. L. H.*, Mathijs Sanders*, Patel K., Dietrich R., Noonan R. J., Lach, F. P., White, R. R., Goldfarb, A., Hadi, K., Edwards, M. M., Donovan, F. X., Hoogenboezem, R. M., Jung, M., Sridhar, S., Wiley, T. F., Fedrigo, O., Tian, H., Rosiene, J., Heineman, T., Kennedy, J. A., Bean, L., Rosti, R. O., Tryon, R., Gonzalez, A., Rosenberg, A., Luo, J., Carrol, T., Shroff, S., Beaumont, M., Velleuer, E., Rastatter, J. C., Wells, S. I., Surrallés, J., Bagby, G., MacMillan, M. L., Wagner, J. E., Cancio, M., Boulad, F., Scognamiglio, T., Vaughan R., Beaumont, K. G., Koren, A., Imielinski, M., Chandrasekharappa, S. C., Auerbach, A. D., Singh, B., Kutler, D. I., Campbell, P. J. & Smogorzewska, A. Genomic signature of Fanconi anemia DNA repair pathway deficiency in cancer. Nature 2022 Dec;612(7940):495-502

 

Groschel, S.*, Mathijs Sanders*, Hoogenboezem, R., de Wit, E., Bouwman, B. A. M., Erpelinck, C., van der Velden, V. H. J., Havermans, M., Avellino, R., van Lom, K., Rombouts, E. J., van Duin, M., Dohner, K., Beverloo, H. B., Bradner, J. E., Dohner, H., Lowenberg, B., Valk, P. J. M., Bindels, E. M. J., de Laat, W. & Delwel, R. A single oncogenic enhancer rearrangement causes concomitant EVI1 and GATA2 deregulation in leukemia. Cell 2014 Apr 10;157(2):369-381.

 

Tovy, A., Reyes, J. M., Gundry, M. C., Brunetti, L., Lee-Six, H., Petljak, M., Park, H. J., Guzman, A. G., Rosas, C., Jeffries, A. R., Baple, E., Mill, J., Crosby, A. H., Sency, V., Xin, B., Machado, H. E., Castillo, D., Weitzel, J. N., Li, W., Stratton, M. R., Campbell, P. J., Wang, H., Mathijs Sanders† & Goodell, M. A.† Tissue-Biased Expansion of DNMT3A-Mutant Clones in a Mosaic Individual Is Associated with Conserved Epigenetic Erosion. Cell Stem Cell 2020 Aug 6;27(2):326-335.e4.

 

Mathijs Sanders*, Chew, E.*, Flensburg, C., Zeilemaker, A., Miller, S. E., Al Hinai, A. S., Bajel, A., Luiken, B., Rijken, M., McLennan, T., Hoogenboezem, R. M., Kavelaars, F. G., Frohling, S., Blewitt, M. E., Bindels, E. M., Alexander, W. S., Lowenberg, B., Roberts, A. W., Valk, P. J. M. & Majewski, I. J. MBD4 guards against methylation damage and germ line deficiency predisposes to clonal hematopoiesis and early-onset AML. Blood 2018 Oct 4;132(14):1526-1534.

 

Grob T., Mathijs Sanders, Vonk C.M., Kavelaars F.G., Rijken M., Hanekamp D.W., Gradowska P.L., Cloos J., Fløisand Y., van Marwijk Kooy M., Manz M.G., Ossenkoppele G.J., Tick L.W., Havelange V., Löwenberg B., Jongen-Lavrencic M., Valk P.J.M. Prognostic Value of FLT3-Internal Tandem Duplication Residual Disease in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Journal of Clinical Oncology 2023 Feb 1;41(4):756-765.

 

Jongen-Lavrencic, M., Grob, T., Hanekamp, D., Kavelaars, F. G., Al Hinai, A., Zeilemaker, A., Erpelinck- Verschueren, C. A. J., Gradowska, P. L., Meijer, R., Cloos, J., Biemond, B. J., Graux, C., van Marwijk Kooy, M., Manz, M. G., Pabst, T., Passweg, J. R., Havelange, V., Ossenkoppele, G. J., Mathijs Sanders, Schuurhuis, G. J.†, Lowenberg, B.† & Valk, P. J. M.† Molecular Minimal Residual Disease in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. N Engl J Med 2018 Mar 29;378(13):1189-1199.

 

Ellis, P.*, Moore, L.*, Mathijs Sanders*, Butler, T. M.*, Brunner, S. F., Lee-Six, H., Osborne, R., Farr, B., Coorens, T. H. H., Lawson, A. R. J., Cagan, A., Stratton, M. R., Martincorena, I. & Campbell, P. J. Reliable detection of somatic mutations in solid tissues by laser-capture microdissection and low-input DNA sequencing. Nat Protoc 2021 Feb;16(2):841-871.

 

Chudasama, P.*, Mughal, S. S.*, Mathijs Sanders*, Hubschmann, D.*, Chung, I., Deeg, K. I., Wong, S. H., Rabe, S., Hlevnjak, M., Zapatka, M., Ernst, A., Kleinheinz, K., Schlesner, M., Sieverling, L., Klink, B., Schrock, E., Hoogenboezem, R. M., Kasper, B., Heilig, C. E., Egerer, G., Wolf, S., von Kalle, C., Eils, R., Stenzinger, A., Weichert, W., Glimm, H., Groschel, S., Kopp, H. G., Omlor, G., Lehner, B., Bauer, S., Schimmack, S., Ulrich, A., Mechtersheimer, G., Rippe, K., Brors, B., Hutter, B., Renner, M., Hohenberger, P., Scholl, C. & Frohling, S. Integrative genomic and transcriptomic analysis of leiomyosarcoma. Nat Commun 2018 Jan 10;9(1):144.

 

Moore, L., Leongamornlert, D., Coorens, T. H. H., Mathijs Sanders, Ellis, P., Dentro, S. C., Dawson, K. J., Butler, T., Rahbari, R., Mitchell, T. J., Maura, F., Nangalia, J., Tarpey, P. S., Brunner, S. F., Lee-Six, H., Hooks, Y., Moody, S., Mahbubani, K. T., Jimenez-Linan, M., Brosens, J. J., Iacobuzio-Donahue, C. A., Martincorena, I., Saeb-Parsy, K., Campbell, P. J. & Stratton, M. R. The mutational landscape of normal human endometrial epithelium. Nature 2020 Apr;580(7805):640-646.

 

Grob, T., Al Hinai, A. S. A., Mathijs Sanders, Kavelaars, F. G., Rijken, M., Gradowska, P. L., Biemond, B. J., Breems, D. A., Maertens, J., van Marwijk Kooy, M., Pabst, T., de Weerdt, O., Ossenkoppele, G. J., van de Loosdrecht, A. A., Huls, G. A., Cornelissen, J. J., Beverloo, H. B., Lowenberg, B., Jongen-Lavrencic, M. & Valk, P. J. M. Molecular characterization of mutant TP53 acute myeloid leukemia and high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome. Blood

2022 Apr 14;139(15):2347-2354.