Translational stem cell transplantation

After completing his medical degree at the State University Utrecht, Jan Cornelissen specialized in internal medicine and hematology, before he moved to Erasmus MC in 1994, becoming Head of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) in the Department of Hematology.

He was an executive board member of the European Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) group and the Dutch Society of Hematology. Currently he chairs the Dutch-Belgium cooperative study group in hemato-oncology HOVON.

Jan Cornelissen’s clinical focus is on the treatment of patients with acute leukemia and other blood diseases. He leads the HSCT program at the Erasmus MC as well as a pre-clinical research team dedicated to the development of umbilical cord blood transplants.

Within the HOVON Consortium, he acts as a Principal Investigator of studies into acute leukemia and HSCT.

Our research

Our lab conducts translational research in the area of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Umbilical cord blood is an increasingly important source of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC) for transplantation. However, the low number of HSPC in cord blood grafts resulted in impaired engraftment and increased mortality in adults. Our research focuses on the improvement of engraftment after cord blood transplantation. In our lab, we concentrate on the development of new approaches to ex vivo expand clinically relevant numbers of cord blood derived HSPC, including HSC that retain self-renewal capacity. In this work, we use combinations of early acting hematopoietic cytokines and molecular compounds that inhibit the differentiation of HSPC and/or promote homing of HSPC to their bone marrow niche. The expansion of the HSPC compartment is evaluated by flowcytometry, hematopoietic colony assays and by primary and secondary transplantation experiments in immunodeficient NSG mice.

These preclinical studies serve as the foundation for process development activities to prepare a GMP-compliant expansion protocol for clinical application.

Our team

Jan Cornelissen, principal investigator

Sjoerd Hermans, PhD student

Niek van der Maas, PhD student

Anna Smit, PhD student

Key publications