PROJECT
SUPERVISORS
Project Supervisor
Rachel Thijssen
Background
I am an Assistant Professor and group leader at the Cancer Center Amsterdam of Amsterdam UMC, where I specialize in targeted therapy resistance in blood cancers. I completed my PhD on drug resistance in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam.
After receiving a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Fellowship, I joined the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne for my postdoctoral research. During this period, I investigated mechanisms of venetoclax resistance, co-leading the discovery of the BCL2 G101V mutation in CLL and extending my work to acute myeloid leukemia (AML), where I identified TP53 as a key driver of treatment failure. In 2023, I returned to the Netherlands after being awarded the Amsterdam UMC Fellowship to establish my independent research group, which is further supported by grants from the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant) and the European Hematology Association (EHA Research Grant). I now lead a multidisciplinary team investigating how AML therapies fail and how we can intervene earlier to improve patient outcomes. My work has been recognized with distinctions such as the ASH/EHA TRTH Career Development Award and the Cure Cancer Researcher of the Year Award.
Research
Our lab investigates why therapies currently used in the clinic for AML, such as venetoclax, eventually stop working, and how we can improve them. We apply advanced single-cell technologies to patient samples, including multiome (RNA+ATAC) and long-read sequencing, to study both leukemic cells and their surrounding immune microenvironment at single-cell resolution.
Alongside patient-derived data, we use robust preclinical AML models to functionally validate resistance mechanisms and therapeutic strategies. Our focus is not only on uncovering how specific mutations contribute to resistance, but also on understanding how leukemia plasticity, clonal heterogeneity, and microenvironmental signals drive therapy failure. Our team combines expertise from both wet-lab scientists and computational researchers, enabling seamless integration of experimental and analytical approaches. Ultimately, our goal is to identify actionable vulnerabilities to optimize treatment duration and improve outcomes for patients with AML.
Publications
Peng H, Jabbari JS, Tian L, Wang C, You Y, Chua CC, Anstee NS, Amin N, Wei AH, Davidson NM, Roberts AW, Huang DCS, Ritchie ME, Thijssen R (2025). Single-cell Rapid Capture Hybridization sequencing reliably detects isoform usage and coding mutations in targeted genes. Genome Research, 35(4):942-955.
https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.279322.124
Teh CE, Peng H, Luo MX, Tan T, Trussart M, Howson LJ, Chua CC, Muttiah C, Brown F, Ritchie ME, Wei AH, Roberts AW, Bryant VL, Anderson MA, Lindeman GJ, Huang DCS, Thijssen R, Gray DHD (2023). Venetoclax treatment in cancer patients has limited impact on circulating T and NK cells. Blood Advances, 7(12):2733-2745.
https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2022008221
Thijssen R, Tian L, Anderson MA, Flensburg C, Jarratt A, Garnham AL, Jabbari JS, Peng H, Lew TE, Teh CE, Gouil Q, Georgiou A, Tan T, Djajawi TM, Tam CS, Seymour JF, Blombery P, Gray DHD, Majewski IJ, Ritchie ME, Roberts AW, Huang DCS (2022). Single-cell multiomics reveal the scale of multi-layered adaptations enabling CLL relapse during venetoclax therapy. Blood, 140(20):2127-2141.
https://doi.org/10.1182/blood.2022016040
Thijssen R, Diepstraten ST, Moujalled D, Chew E, Flensburg C, Shi MX, Dengler MA, Litalien V, MacRaild S, Chen M, Anstee NS, Reljić B, Gabriel SS, Djajawi TM, Riffkin CD, Aubrey BJ, Chang C, Tai L, Xu Z, Morley T, Pomilio G, Bruedigam C, Kallies A, Stroud DA, Bajel A, Kluck RM, Lane SW, Schoumacher M, Banquet S, Majewski IJ, Strasser A, Roberts AW, Huang DCS, Brown FC, Kelly GL, Wei AH (2021). Intact TP53 function is essential for sustaining durable responses to BH3-mimetic drugs in leukemias. Blood, 137(20):2721-2735.
https://doi.org/10.1182/blood.2020010167
Blombery P, Anderson MA, Gong JN, Thijssen R, Birkinshaw RW, Thompson ER, Teh CE, Nguyen T, Xu Z, Flensburg C, Lew TE, Majewski IJ, Gray DHD, Westerman DA, Tam CS, Seymour JF, Czabotar PE, Huang DCS, Roberts AW (2019). Acquisition of the Recurrent Gly101Val Mutation in BCL2 Confers Resistance to Venetoclax in Patients with Progressive Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Cancer Discovery, 9(3):342-353.
https://doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CD-18-1119