Anne Karine Lagendijk 36th Lorne Cancer Conference 2024

Anne Karine Lagendijk

Anne Lagendijk did her undergraduate studies at (MSc degree in Biomedical Sciences) at the Radboud University Nijmegen (the Netherlands). As an undergraduate Anne developed a lasting fascination with Developmental Biology, working in the labs of Prof. Peter Koopman (Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Brisbane) on ovarian specification and with Prof. Ronald Plasterk (Hubrecht Institute, Utrecht, the Netherlands) on microRNAs that control pancreas development. For her PhD training Anne stayed at the Hubrecht and joined the lab of Prof. Jeroen Bakkers. She identified novel regulators that control Hyaluronic acid homeostasis in the ECM of the developing zebrafish heart. These factors were proven to be essential for cardiac valve formation. After completing her PhD, Anne relocated to the IMB/UQ in 2012 to work as a UQ Postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof. Ben Hogan. She initiated a project studying mechanotransduction at endothelial cell-cell junctions in vivo, in collaboration with the lab of Prof. Alpha Yap. She generated the first vertebrate FRET tension biosensor as part of this work. She further continued her interest in Hyaluronic acid signalling and, in collaboration with the lab of A/Prof Kelly Smith, identified that the hyaluronidase Tmem2 is required for sprouting angiogenesis in vivo. Anne now leads her own lab at the IMB since 2019. Her team uses both zebrafish and 3D human micro-vessels to study endothelial cell adhesion and mechanics. The teams aims to understand adhesion mechanisms that contribute to vessel morphogenesis and function, both during development and in diseases such as childhood brain cancer and familial vascular malformations.