Partners
OutMARCH is an international research consortium funded through the European Union’s Horizon Europe EIC Pathfinder programme. The project brings together academic, clinical and biotech expertise from the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland.
Our partners contribute complementary strengths in cancer biology, MARCH E3 ligase biology, antibody and nanobody discovery, AI-guided protein design, patient-derived cancer models and early therapeutic development. Together, we aim to build a new MARCH-based membrane protein degradation platform for difficult-to-treat cancers.
Meet our members below!
UMCU is the academic hospital of Utrecht University, where clinical care and research go hand in hand. Its researchers work closely with clinicians to ensure that scientific questions stay connected to what actually matters for patients.
University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands
Fabiola de Andrade
Erik van den Bosch
Project manager
PhD
Ingrid Jordens
Madelon Maurice
Lead work packages 3, 5, 6 & 7
Senior scientist
KNAW is the Netherlands’ national academy of arts and sciences, and home to a number of independent research institutes. Within OutMARCH, KNAW is represented by the Sahtoe lab at the Hubrecht Institute, a KNAW institute for molecular and developmental biology. The Sahtoe lab will computationally design and characterize novel proteins that engage with MARCH E3 ligase extracellular loops.
Hubrecht Institute (KNAW), the Netherlands
Postdoc
Lead work package 1
WP1: Discovery and Engineering of High-Affinity Binders for MARCH-based Degraders
Michael Uckelmann
Danny Sahtoe
UKB is the university hospital of the University of Bonn, with active research programmes in immunology, oncology, and rare diseases. It combines a busy clinical environment with strong ties to basic science, making it well placed to work on questions that sit at the interface of the two.
Universitatsklinkum Bonn, Germany
Lead work package 2
WP2: Identification, characterization and optimization of bispecific MARCH-based degraders with highest potency
Florian Schmidt
UZH is Switzerland’s largest university, with a broad research portfolio spanning medicine, immunology, genetics, and structural biology. It is part of a dense scientific ecosystem in Zurich, with close collaborative ties to ETH Zurich and the University Hospital Zurich.
Universitat zurich, Switzerland
Lead work package 4
WP4: Assessment of the efficacy of MARCH-based SureTACs in pre-clinical patient-derived cancer models
Thorsten Zenz
Selin Bereketli
PhD student
Do Thi Huong Lan
Postdoc
Laigo Bio, the Netherlands
Laigo Bio is an innovative biotech company pioneering a new approach to treating cancer and autoimmune disease through targeted membrane protein degradation. Its SureTAC™ platform uses bispecific antibodies to guide the cell’s own recycling machinery towards disease-causing surface proteins, with the aim of degrading targets that have so far been difficult to drug.
VP Research at Laigo Bio