Hendrik Veelken

As autochthonous malignancies of the adaptive immune system, B-cell lymphomas are dependent on B-cell receptor expression and signalling. My laboratory investigates distinct mechanisms that activate B-cell receptor signalling in various lymphoma types, including autoantigenic stimulation, antigen-independent autonomous signalling, acquisition of N-glycosylation, and oncogenic mutations within the signalling cascade. In addition, the role of the lymphoma microenvironment with focus on specific, activating or inhibiting T-B cell interactions is investigated. Insight into the commonalities or differences between autoimmunity and B-cell malignancies will inspire novel approaches to inhibit essential stimulating signals and to activate immunosurveillance of pathogenic B-cell clones in autoimmunity and lymphoma.

Affiliation

Department of Hematology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
j.h.veelken@lumc.nl

Publications

Koning MT, Kielbasa SM, Boersma V, Buermans HPJ, van der Zeeuw SAJ, van Bergen CAM, Cleven AHG, Kluin PM, Griffioen M, Navarrete MA, et al. ARTISAN PCR: rapid identification of full-length immunoglobulin rearrangements without primer binding bias. Br J Haematol. 2017.

Scherer F, van der Burgt M, Kielbasa SM, Bertinetti-Lapatki C, Duhren von Minden M, Mikesch K, Zirlik K, de Wreede L, Veelken H, Navarrete MA. Selection patterns of B-cell receptors and the natural history of follicular lymphoma. Br J Haematol. 2016.

Schneider D, Duhren-von Minden M, Alkhatib A, Setz C, van Bergen CA, Benkisser-Petersen M, Wilhelm I, Villringer S, Krysov S, Packham G, et al. Lectins from opportunistic bacteria interact with acquired variable-region glycans of surface immunoglobulin in follicular lymphoma. Blood. 2015.

Papaioannou D, Strothmeyer AM, Duhren-von Minden M, Keppler-Hafkemeyer A, Zirlik K, Mikesch K, van Bergen CA, Navarrete MA, Veelken H. Evidence for idiotype-directed immunosurveillance is restricted to follicular lymphoma and attributable to somatic hypermutation. Haematologica. 2015.

Duhren-von Minden M, Ubelhart R, Schneider D, Wossning T, Bach MP, Buchner M, Hofmann D, Surova E, Follo M, Kohler F, et al. Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia is driven by antigen-independent cell-autonomous signalling. Nature. 2012.

Theses

Florian Scherer: The role of AID in the immunobiology and pathophysiology of follicular lymphoma. Awarded: 2013

Current PhD projects

Marvyn T. Koning: Analysis of the B-cell repertoire by massive parallel sequences of complete immunoglobulin heavy and light chain transcripts in health and disease.

Janneke A. Eken: Oncogenic BCR signalling in aggressive B-cell lymphomas.

Julieta H. Sepulveda Yanez: Oncogenic AID induced mutagenesis in B-cell lymphoma.

Sebastiaan F. Somers: Unravelling genetic mutational profiles of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphomas for the improvement of precision medicine.