I am a molecular biologist & geneticist specialized in epigenetics in cancer & leukaemia. I have been actively researching Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia as a fellow of Propondis Foundation with a focus on intraclonal diversity and immunogenetics. My research path includes work at the field of tumor immunology (T regulatory cells in melanoma and antitumor responses) as a Onassis fellow at German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). Over the past years I have developed strong expertise and interest in the field of Epigenetics including DNA methylation & histone modifications research projects. As a research fellow at Heidelberg University and DKFZ I have investigated epigenetics mechanisms of HPV-related head neck squamous cell carcinomas and I have identified a novel epigenetic signature which can serve as a robust biomarker for patient stratification and treatment de-escallation.

Since 2018 I joined Queen’s University Belfast (School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences - The Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine) where I lead a research group on Epigenetics with a focus on Leukaemia and Lymphocytes biology.

Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying treatment failure in chronic diseases such as leukaemia is an essential biological question with important clinical impact. In the last years, we have performed high throughput characterization of the enhancer landscape in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia upon BTK inhibitory treatment aiming at shedding lights into treatment resistance mechanisms beyond the well-described mutations. Next, our lab research mission is to:

1. investigate the role of key enhancers and transcription factors as major modulators of the transcriptional landscape in malignant B-cells and other immune cells  
2. defining the molecular and epigenomic feature of normal vs. malignant B -cell of diverse maturation status in the presence of 1^st and 2^nd generation targeted therapeutic agents 
3. investigate the role of epigenomics and  BTK signalling in autoimmune disease

MED1012: Personal and Professional Development Portfolio

MED 2018: Personal and Professional Development Portfolio

SCM8097-SCM8134: Immunity in Health and Disease (MSc Experimental Medicine) 

SCM8108: Applied Genomics (MSc Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics)

BMS3104: Molecular Markers of Disease

BMS3112: The Research Project Module (Biomedical Sciences) (supervision)

SCM8146-Research Project and Dissertation (Msc Experimental Medicine) (supervision)

EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH INTERESTS

• The Sandwich Principle and Active Learning 
• Transferable skills for biomedical/medical students and scientists
• Flip-the-classroom with e-learning platforms
• Personal Response systems in the virtual classroom
• Social media and research-informed teaching