Dr. Rebekka Schneider is a physician–scientist deeply committed to advancing the understanding of clonal myeloid neoplasms and their microenvironment. She received her M.D. from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, in 2007, and her Ph.D. from Erasmus MC University, the Netherlands, in 2017. Currently, she serves as the Director of the Department for Cell and Tumor Biology at RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany, and as a Principal Investigator at Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Dr. Schneider performed her postdoctoral fellowship in Benjamin Ebert’s lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, where she focused on genetic haploinsufficiency in hematopoietic stem cell biology and the targeted therapy of del(5q) myelodysplastic syndrome. This experience shaped her approach to disease-oriented laboratory investigation and led her to adopt a broad range of genomic, cellular, and molecular biology techniques in her research.
Driven by the critical need to understand and predict bone marrow fibrosis in myeloproliferative neoplasms, Dr. Schneider has dedicated her laboratory work to unraveling the interactions between hematopoietic cells and their supportive niche. She has focused on the pivotal role of Gli1+ mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) as drivers of fibrosis. By exploring both genetic ablation and pharmacological strategies targeting Hedgehog signaling, she has demonstrated how modulating these cells can reduce fibrosis and restore normal bone marrow function.
In addition, Dr. Schneider is deeply invested in elucidating the mechanisms that prime the hematopoietic stem cell for malignant transformation, particularly under the influence of external stimuli such as inflammation and chronic disease. Her laboratory studies have identified key pro-fibrotic mediators, including the S100A8/S100A9 alarmin complex and CXCL4, that contribute to niche remodeling and disease progression, and tasquinimod as a drug acting in this pathway. Based on this work, she has set up a clinical phase I/II HOVON trial of tasquinimod in patients with myelofibrosis refractory to or intolerant of JAK2 inhibition (clinicaltrials.gov: NCT06605586, HOVON 172), which just included the first patient in February 2025.
Dr. Schneider’s work has received recognition from various national and international organizations, and she remains committed to bridging fundamental discoveries with clinical innovation. In 2023, she co-founded the spin-off Sequantrix GmbH, focusing on innovative anti-fibrotic targets. Ultimately, her goal is to transform mechanistic insights in hematopoietic stem cell biology into targeted therapies that will significantly improve patient outcomes in hematologic malignancies.
