Colinda Scheele is a groupleader at the VIB Center for Cancer Biology and an assistant professor at the University of Leuven, Belgium as of June 2020. Colinda received a Master in Biomedical Sciences from Utrecht University. She performed her PhD research in the lab of Prof. Jacco van Rheenen (at the Hubrecht Institute (Utrecht) and the Netherlands Cancer Institute (Amsterdam)) which she completed in 2020 with highest honours. During this time, she pioneered unbiased lineage tracing approaches, 3D whole organ imaging techniques and intravital microscopy strategies to study mammary stem cell dynamics and branching morphogenesis (Scheele*, Hannezo* et al., 2017, Nature; Hannezo*, Scheele* et al., 2017, Cell; Corominas-Murtra*, Scheele* et al., 2020, PNAS). She received several awards for her work, including the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds fellowship and the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek award. 

Directly after her PhD she started her independent group at VIB Center for Cancer Biology. Her lab studies how healthy mammary tissue architecture prevents or promotes the different steps of tumorigenesis. Her lab uses advanced imaging approaches, including intravital microscopy, and organoid models. These tools are complemented with (spatial) omics and quantitative modelling to further elucidate the mechanisms of tissue transformation.