08 Nov Meet UBC partner Princess Máxima Center
The Princess Máxima Center (PMC) is the new institute that aims to cure all children with cancer with fewer side effects and less long-term complications and a new UBC partner. Being part of a larger bioinformatics community is essential for achieving PMC’s goals and improving patient care.
PMC will set up new facilities
The PMC started treatment of children with cancer approximately two years ago within the Children’s hospital of UMC Utrecht. Since January this year, both the Holstege and the Kemmeren group have moved from the UMC Utrecht to the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology and started their new research activities.
Patrick Kemmeren enthusiastically tells about the plans within the PMC: “Together with a dedicated team of people, Frank Holstege and myself are now building the bioinformatics and genomics infrastructures needed to enable precision systems medicine approaches. New facilities such as a biobank, tumor organoid bank and live cell imaging dedicated to child cancer are being setup, often in strong collaboration with other research groups. Bioinformatics is at the core of all of these efforts to enable a truly integrated, high-quality and dynamic research ecosystem.”
Partner in Utrecht Bioinformatics Center
The Princess Máxima Center is now also participating in the Utrecht Bioinformatics Center. Being part of such a diverse and high-quality community really helps in developing the essential infrastructures and tools for our institute. Patrick says: “Since bioinformatics is vital for dealing with a dynamic, diverse and data rich research environment, being part of a larger bioinformatics community is essential for achieving our goals. Many of our collaborators are also part of this community and by joining forces we can really create a unique environment that facilitates pediatric oncology research and improves patient care for children with cancer.”
Utrecht Science Park
The teams of the Holstege and Kemmeren group are already actively collaborating with many research groups and facilities at Utrecht Science Park. Several infrastructures, such as a High-Performance Compute cluster, sequencing facility and cell screening facility already exist at Utrecht Science Park. Utrecht Science Park is the ideal research environment for the new PMC building that enables cutting edge research and drives child cancer treatment.