Christine van Hattem (MSc) is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Clinical Therapeutics of the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology (PECP), within the Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS).

Christine completed her BSc in Biomedical Sciences at Utrecht University, followed by an MSc in Drug Innovation. Her studies were enriched through several internships. At UIPS's Division of Pharmacology, she explored the gut-brain axis and its role in autism spectrum disorders by employing both in vitro and in vivo approaches. Another internship, at the PECP Division in collaboration with the Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board (College ter Beoordeling van Geneesmiddelen, CBG), focused on the feasiblity of clinical trials to evaluate new oncology medicines after approval.

Doctoral studies
Since February 2023, Christine has been conducting her PhD research as part of the DARE-NL consortium, a KWF-funded Dutch infrastructure that aims to accelerate clinical testing of novel cell and gene therapies (i.e., ATMPs) to ensure timely and sustainable access to potentially curative treatment options for cancer patients. Her research focuses on improving patient access to innovative therapies, especially cell and gene therapies. 

In her first year, Christine co-authored a ZonMw-commissioned report on ATMPs in the Netherlands, which is published open access. She also contributes to an openly accessible database of the currently approved ATMPs which is available through the Regulatory Science Network Netherlands (RSNN).

Education
Alongside her research, Christine is actively involved in several courses. She coordinates the Master of Pharmacy course on oncology therapies and she contributes to both the design and teaching of the elective course on cell and gene therapies; both courses closely related to her research. Drawing on her research about innovative therapies that are typically highly priced, she enjoys discussions with the first-year students on complexities for such therapies in the Bachelor of Care, Health, and Society (Zorg, gezondheid en samenleving).