dr. A. (Arja) ter Elst

Arja ter Elst is a Clinical Molecular Scientist in pathology at the department of Pathology. In 1997 she started her career at the department of medical Genetics at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) as a technician on different projects. In 2000 she was given the chance to become a PhD student on the elusive chromosome 3 project of Prof. Dr. Charles Buys. During her time at the department of Genetics her work included cell line and mouse models as well as for that time new molecular techniques such as Array-CGH and expression arrays. In 2006 she successfully defended her thesis: “On the elucidation of a tumour suppressor role of 3p in lung cancer”. She continued to work in the UMCG in the department of Pediatrics as a post doc. For six years together with Prof. dr. Eveline de Bont she was responsible for the research that was conducted by the PhD students and technicians on Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), Acute Lymphoid Leukemia (ALL), Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) and brain tumors in childhood cancer. The research focused on finding alternative strategies for treating cancer including tyrosine kinase inhibitors using cell biological assays as well as expression arrays, proteome arrays and kinase arrays. Apart from being responsible for the PhD students and technicians, she was also conducting her own research with the focus on active kinase pathways in AML. Several collaborations were maintained or initiated by her, among which the collaboration with Prof. dr. Steven Kornblau from the MD Anderson Cancer Center stands out. From 2012 she has been in training as a Clinical Molecular Scientist in pathology, in October 2015, she was registered and she is now responsible for the daily diagnostic routine of the molecular pathology laboratory of the UMCG.