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Enjoy the sun safely! Simple precautions to save your skin

The incidence of skin cancers has been increasing worldwide over the past decades in an alarming rate. One of the reasons is the thinning ozone sphere, causing overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. On the other hand, bad outdoor habits that are common nowadays help the increasing danger for melanoma development. BothRead More
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Familial melanoma: Risk of disease as an inherited disorder

It is now widely appreciated that cancer may arise from multifactorial contributors both genetic and environmental. In approximately 10% of melanoma cases multiple family members are affected. Familial melanoma defines the occurrence of 3 or more melanomas in a family, 2 of which are found in first-degree relatives (Figure1).Read More
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It’s all in the genes

While the majority of cancers are not hereditary, some do occur multiple times within the same family. A well-known example of this is breast cancer, where mutations in the BRCA genes (BRCA1/BRCA2) predispose to breast cancer, with notable patients including Angelina Jolie. Melanoma, too, can sometimes be passed fromRead More
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What scientists mean by “heterogeneity” and why you should care

The term “diversity” is frequently circulated in our modern world. We are all different: we look different, have different personalities, and like different things. This is easy for us to understand and accept, yet it is only recently that this truth has been acknowledged in for example cancer drug development.Read More
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Leeds University welcomes ESRs

This year annual GenoMEL scientific meeting was held in Leeds, UK in April and 17 MELGEN Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) who are spread across Europe joined 60 other delegates to find out about the latest melanoma research. During the meeting PhD students presented their projects and preliminary data duringRead More
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Social Networks – The new weapon in the war against melanoma

One should not judge a book by its cover. Unlike other skin cancer types, melanoma may look harmless in the beginning. However, it can be one of the most aggressive skin cancer types, which may result in fatality if it remains untreated. Our focus is melanoma research. One centralRead More
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Leiden – Learning a new skill or two…

After a hard day getting their heads around the complexites of unsupervised clustering and box plots the 16 students, together with many of those scientists delivering their training, took a night out to try their hand at a new skill: 10-pin bowling. For a couple of hours the studentsRead More
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Leiden – MELGEN ESRs begin their training

On the 18th January 2016, 16 of the 17 MELGEN Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) gathered in Leiden. They began an intensive 10-day course of training hosted by the Leiden University Medical Center and GenomeScan, one of MELGEN’s commercial partners. The course was designed to give all the students, irrespectiveRead More