Niels Ruber

Niels Ruber is a biomedical scientist pursuing a PhD at the Department of Surgery. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences from Maastricht University and a Master’s degree in Biology of Disease from Utrecht University. Niels has experience in coordinating clinical studies and in surgical biobanking, with a strong motivation to translate insights from human studies into a better understanding of disease mechanisms that could inform future therapies. His PhD research, conducted within the INSPIRE-X study, a collaborative effort between Maastricht University and Wageningen University and Research, focuses on intestinal barrier function and multi-organ crosstalk in cancer cachexia.

As part of this project, Niels conducts clinical test days with pancreatic and colon cancer patients to assess intestinal permeability in vivo, physical fitness, and body composition. He also collects multiple tissue samples from each patient for multi-omics analyses and organoid generation. These data are integrated to link patient phenotypes with cellular and molecular characteristics, providing insights into the mechanisms driving cancer cachexia. Outside the lab, Niels enjoys playing guitar, cycling, and cooking.