“During my first internship while working towards my master’s degree, I discovered the joys of investigating the way things work in a lab. My grandfather passed away from lung cancer shortly after completing my internship, which made me even more determined to contribute to cancer research. My focus was on DNA damage, telomeres in particular. These are found at the ends of chromosomes, carriers of our hereditary material. Telomeres act as protective covers, preventing DNA loss during cell division. They’re comparable to the plastic tips of shoelaces. The more you wear your shoes, the more the laces degrade. The human body works similarly: as you age, telomeres shorten. Once they are too short to provide protection, the cell dies. However, cancer cells stay alive. They keep dividing, which often leads to problems. We sometimes observe chromosomes with their ends tied together. I discovered that one enzyme plays a central role in this process, but this enzyme has too many functions to easily address this issue. I ended up playing a similarly central role in the lab. My colleagues called me the lab mom: whenever there was a problem, they would come to me. I always had some band-aids or lozenges on hand.”
Zeliha will defend her thesis on March 5.
This research was financially made possible in part by KWF Dutch Cancer Society.
prof. dr. T.K. Sixma
dr. J.J.L. Jacobs