PhD student
Precision Sarcoma Research Group, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), Heidelberg, Germany
I hold a BSc degree in Biosciences and Biotechnology from the University of Camerino and an MSc degree in Molecular Biotechnology from the University of Birmingham. During my research internships at Meridian Bioscience and Diatech Pharmacogenetics, I gained my first experience with computational methods in genomics by detecting SNPs, indels, and gene fusions using the NanoString technology, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, and NGS platforms. My master’s thesis project around the epigenetic mechanisms of resistance to HDAC inhibitors in Burkitt lymphoma involved analyzing microarray data to nominate candidate genes for functional evaluation. I deepened my interest in cancer research by working as a research associate in the RNA Splicing in Cancer group at the BioMed X Institute. By employing precise CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, I generated human cancer cell lines with heterozygous single nucleotide mutations in splicing factors. Currently, I am a Ph.D. candidate within the Junior Research Group “Precision Sarcoma Research” led by Dr. Priya Chudasama at German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). My project aims at investigating activated telomere maintenance mechanisms in sarcomas with complex karyotypes to understand their role in genomic instability and identify additional entry points for targeted therapeutic intervention.
