Great Presence of OncoRNALab at Oncopoint

Few days ago we celebrated the 10th anniversary of OncoPoint at the PrIOMiC-OncoPoint Symposium 2026 in Gent. Many members of OncoRNALab joined the event, making the most of this chance to learn about the latest cancer research at Ghent University and connect with other researchers.

PhD fellows Thijs, Elena, Charlotte, Quinn, and Brecht presented their projects through posters. Elena and Brecht also gave a short talk to introduce their research. In the end, Elena won the Best Pitch prize, and Brecht and Quinn got the Best Poster prizes, a great achievement for their hard work.

Congratulations to all!

Thijs investigates how introducing a second, intentional mismatch in DNA probes can overcome the limited selectivity of classic single-mismatch designs for detecting single-nucleotide variants. By systematically mapping mismatch interactions, he identifies probe designs that increase the thermodynamic difference (ΔΔG), enabling improved discrimination of mutant DNA from excess wild-type.

Elena has developed HemoPrint, a high-throughput and cost-efficient platform to monitor the immune system through blood transcriptomics.

Brecht is focusing on the creation of an in-house platform for spatial transcriptomics.

Charlotte’s study systematically benchmarks somatic variant calling strategies for tumor-only RNA-seq data. Our analysis provides practical guidance for identifying expressed mutations, transforming how transcriptomic information can be leveraged for molecular characterization in precision oncology.

Quinn is developing a protocol to implement long-RNA sequencing in a spatial transcriptomics platform.