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Postbox 9101
6500HB Nijmegen
The Netherlands
Geert Grooteplein 28
6525 GA, Nijmegen
T: +31 24 3610544
F: +31 24 3540339

Ruurd Torensma is Assistant Professor at the Department of Tumor Immunology. He has a background in protein chemistry and immunology.
Dr. Ruurd Torensma

Research interests include immunology, stem cell biology and tissue engineering with a specific focus on cancer stem cells.  Mesenchymal stem cells are studied together with several other groups working on wound healing and biomaterials. Major current projects focus on the characterization of cancer stem cells, the putative role of immune regulating  cells in the outgrowth of ovarian tumors and the contribution of mesenchymal stem cells in wound repair. Ultimate goal is to find proteins expressed by cancer stem cells that are not expressed by more mature tumor cells. This opens the possibility to use these proteins as targets for the immune elimination of those rare cancer stem cells. Secondly, we want to know how tumors paralyze immune cells present in the tumor. Lastly, the contribution of bone marrow derived stem cells to wound healing is studied using novel dedicated biomaterials.
 

Recent key publications

van Herpen CM, et al. (2008) Intratumoral rhIL-12 administration in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients induces B cell activation. Int J Cancer 123: 2354-2361.

van den Berk LCJ, Figdor CG, Torensma R (2008) Mesenchymal Stromal Cells: tissue engineers and immune response modulators. Archiv Immunol Ther Exp 56: 1-5.

Tacken P, et al. (2008) No advantage of cell penetrating peptides over receptor-specific antibodies in targeting antigen to human dendritic cells for cross-presentation. J Immunol 180: 7687-7696.

Gijzen K, et al. (2008) Interaction of acute lymphopblastic leukemia cells with C-type lectins DC-SIGN and L-SIGN. Exp Hematol 36: 860-870.

den Dekker E, et al. (2008) Monocyte Cell Surface Glycosaminoglycans Positively Modulate IL-4-Induced Differentiation toward Dendritic Cells. J Immunol 180: 3680-3688. IF 6,068 6.

Cambi A, et al. (2008) Dendritic cell interaction with Candida albicans critically depends on N-linked mannan. J Biol Chem 283: 20590-20599.