Lara Stassen

Lara Stassen obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences at Maastricht University, where she discovered her enthusiasm for translational cancer research. What interested her most was the combination of lab and clinical work, and especially the opportunity to bridge the gap from bench to bedside. What drew her to the field of cancer cachexia is that almost everyone knows someone with cancer, and sees firsthand the physical impact it has on patients. Yet, cachexia as a concept, and the complex, multifactorial processes behind it, are still poorly understood.

In September 2024, she started her PhD at Maastricht University across both the Department of Surgery and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Her work focuses on cancer cachexia and the mechanisms driving muscle atrophy. She works with patient-derived (ovarian and pancreatic) tumor organoids and human skeletal muscle cells to examine how tumor-derived factors contribute to lipid accumulation and mitochondrial dysfunction in muscle tissue, using live-cell imaging and advanced microscopy techniques. In addition, her work explores how diabetes mellitus may exacerbate muscle wasting in cachectic cancer patients.