Postdoctoral Fellow

Basseem Radwan

Profile

I hold a Master of Pharmacy (Erciyes University, Turkey) and a PhD cum laude (Jagiellonian University, Poland), where I developed novel imaging techniques to study endothelial dysfunction. I completed two postdoctoral trainings: in neuroimmunology (Nencki Institute, Poland) and biosensing (Max Planck Institute, Germany), along with multiple internships and research visits. My strong international and interdisciplinary background spans pharmaceutical sciences, chemistry, imaging, neuroimmunology, and biosensing. I’m excited to join IJC as a Marie Curie CarrerasLeaders Fellow, carrying out my project MAESTRO-NHL, investigating endothelial senescence role in lymphoma relapse.

Project description

Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL) encompasses a variety of lymphoid neoplasms, with diverse biological and clinical behaviours. With the majority of cases being B-cell malignancies, the standard treatment for NHL, RCHOP, includes different non-selective chemotherapeutic agents. Despite having a 5-year survival rate of about 60%, NHL poses a significant global health burden, with high relapse rates challenging treatment efficacy. This could be attributed to the therapy-induced accumulation of senescent cells, especially endothelial cells (ECs), in different tissues. Therefore, the main goal of this project is to identify the molecular and cellular mechanisms leading to NHL progression and drug resistance, with a special focus on endothelial senescence. To achieve this, I will utilize multiple approaches, initially, using CHOP-treated in vivo models to isolate and characterize senescent ECs through RNA-seq and SA βgal staining. Subsequently, the crosstalk between senescent ECs and lymphoma cells will be investigated through in vitro co-culture experiments. Furthermore, the project aims to identify key senescence-associated factors controlling NHL relapse by conducting RNA sequencing on interacting lymphoma and ECs, analysing secretomes by mass spectroscopy, and identifying
key senescence spectroscopic markers using Raman spectroscopy. Building up on previous expertise, a multimodal imaging assay will be implemented to study therapy-induced biochemical and morphological changes in the tumour microenvironment. Aiming to assess the impact of blocking interactions between senescent ECs and NHL cells, commercially available neutralizing antibodies and knockout clones using CRISPR/Cas9 technology targeting the identified senescence factors will be implemented. Finally, we will employ genomic sequencing of peripheral blood cells extracted from NHL patients at distinct stages (at diagnosis, R-CHOP treatment, and post-disease progression) to monitor senescence biomarkers noninvasively and correlate these biomarkers with clinical outcomes. This could pave the way for personalized therapeutic strategies, combining chemotherapy and senolytic interventions to optimize clinical benefits for patients prone to senescent cell accumulation upon chemotherapy.