Iris van 't Erve

Dr. Iris van ’t Erve is a molecular biologist currently working as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine. Her work focuses on cell-free nucleic acids in the blood of cancer patients. She is fascinated by the information these molecules carry and tries to utilize it to personalize cancer treatment. Specifically, she is currently trying to unravel why immunotherapy works for some lung cancer patients and not for others. Iris obtained her doctorate degree from the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, and she holds two cum laude master’s degrees from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. 

I want to forecast which lung cancer patients will respond to immunotherapy. I want this because long-term benefit is only seen in 1 out of 5 patients, while all are burdened with side effects and the costs for society are high. I can do this because I’m part of a team that combines extensive laboratory skills with state-of-the-art bioinformatics. 

Iris van ’t Erve participated at the Female Science Talents International Spring Gathering 2023 and the Female Science Talents Intensive Track 2023.