Matthias D’Huyvetter became a doctoral student at VUB in 2009, in the lab with Prof. Dr. Tony Lahoutte, in order to research the way in which radioactively charged antibodies can be directly targeted to fight cancer. Today he is the scientific director at Precirix, a VUB spin-off that he co-founded with the support of VUB TechTransfer and which is building on this research. In addition, he is doing a research assignment at VUB. “A doctorate can be a stepping stone for either an academic or business career. The opportunities are endless”, he says.
Matthias focuses on the use of antibodies from camelids because they are very small and can spread easily in the body. They can be selected to recognise certain surface structures in cancer cells and to attach themselves according to the key-lock principle. If they are then charged with a radioactive substance they can destroy the cell in question. For this to be achieved, it is sufficient to inject them into the bloodstream. In doing so, cancers in the body that are hard to reach using traditional methods can still be treated. Furthermore, no healthy tissue is harmed in the process.
End result
“I had just completed my Master’s in Biomedical Science when I saw a vacancy for a joint doctoral project launched by VUB and SCK CEN, the Study Centre for Nuclear Energy. That appealed to me because I was already fascinated by the entire journey of medicine research, from the development of a molecule right down to the testing, and ultimately the opportunity to use this in treating patients”, says D’Huyvetter.
“Initially I thought that the research would be mainly conducted at the SCK CEN in Mol, which was handy for me as a resident of Antwerp, but in fact it ended up gravitating towards VUB and Prof. Dr. Tony Lahoutte’s lab.”
“In any case, I was planning to do a doctorate. The idea emerged, above all in my Master years.”
After his doctorate, D’Huyvetter continued his research activities in a post doctorate with a grant from the FWO - Flanders. “Initially, I did that in parallel with a little work in the private sector. Meanwhile, with five colleagues and a business developer, we have actually founded our own company: Camel-IDS (now Precirix).”
D’Huyvetter is very enthusiastic when he remembers his doctoral period. “It was a time of ups and downs. You learn not to give up when things go wrong, but just to keep at it. I don’t know anyone whose doctorate was one endless stream of enthusiasm.”
“You also get a lot of freedom. You can be very creative in your research, allowing you to leave the traditional paths. You can be very innovative. In addition, you must also sense for yourself when it’s time to switch and move to the next phase in an investigation. For me, it was a fantastic and incredible opportunity. A once-in-a-lifetime experience. It’s not quite the same as doing a post doctorate. There you broaden the focus and run different research activities.”
Big investigations
For D’Huyvetter, who has since completed an MBA, it was soon clear that his future would lie in the private sector. “We wanted to continue our research in nuclear medicine. That can be challenging with the limited budgets and time restrictions that you can face within academic research. “We must be able to treat large groups of patients and monitor them for a long time. That is only possible within an industrial context and with appropriate funding. Nonetheless, I am really proud that we are already well on our way to offering patients a treatment for which we laid the foundations more than ten years ago.”
In fact he has kept a research position at VUB, albeit it a small one. “That allows me to be very creative and continue doing research without restraints and shape the new generation of treatment strategies.”