Sarah De Val

Professor
Tumor Biology
Ludwig Cancer Research Institute
Belgium

Business Expert Infectious Diseases
Biography

Ludwig Cancer Research is a global community of leading scientists pursuing innovative ways to prevent and control cancer. From basic research to clinical trials, in individual laboratories or as part of international teams, our researchers are tackling the hardest questions, spotting the connections and the possibilities. At Ludwig, we test our work against the one measure that matters — improving human health. Ludwig Cancer Research is a global community of leading scientists pursuing innovative ways to prevent and control cancer. From basic research to clinical trials, in individual laboratories or as part of international teams, our researchers are tackling the hardest questions, spotting the connections and the possibilities. At Ludwig, we test our work against the one measure that matters — improving human health.

Research Intrest

I have been interested in transcriptional regulation since my PhD studies. I joined the Ludwig Institute in 2010 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, under Professor Brian Black. Throughout my research career I have made significant contributions to our knowledge of the transcriptional regulation of genes within the vasculature. My postdoctoral work described the Fox/Ets regulation of gene expression during vasculogenesis through the study of the early endothelial-specific Mef2c gene enhancer, and our recent research at Ludwig has already elucidated a transcriptional pathway regulating arterial identity. In addition, our lab has established a vascular enhancer analysis pipeline that enables the identification, validation and characterization of functional mammalian gene enhancers for any gene of interest. This pipeline is cost-effective and time-efficient, while the use of in vivo models provides the detailed knowledge of enhancer expression patterns essential for our research.