Ralph Meuwissen PhD

Prof. Dr. Ralph Meuwissen received his MSc in biochemistry from the Faculty of Science at  Leiden University, followed by a PhD in molecular cell genetics from the Faculty of Animal Sciences at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He performed the major part of his postdoctoral studies at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, where he specialized in the field of cancer genetics and the design and development of advanced animal models for human cancer. In 2006, he became a junior group leader working for the medical research board INSERM, at the Institute Albert Bonniot in Grenoble, France. During this period, his research was focused on the study of molecular mechanisms that govern lung cancer progression and therapy response. For this, he continued to use more advanced genetically engineered mouse models for lung cancer.

In 2012, Dr. Meuwissen became a researcher at Dokuz Eylül University, followed by his transfer to Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Institute (IBG). His research interest remained in lung cancer but with more emphasis on translational applications. In 2020, he became a professor at Ege University and a member of the Ege TPRC. His current research interests lie in the development of more advanced animal models, such Patient Derived Xenotransplant lung cancer models in a humanized mouse background, as well as further development and fine-tuning of genetically engineered mouse models. These preclinical models will be used to elucidate the role that tumor heterogeneity plays during progression and (immuno)therapy response in human lung cancer. During his work as a researcher, Dr. Meuwissen was a leader in several international and European projects as well as, more recently, in several TÜB?TAK projects.